Daniel E. Smith

Daniel E. Smith is a painter (American, 1952) known for his abstracts, architectural abstracts, and landscapes. Smith’s work reflects the affect and effect of the spaces that form our environments. Using light and color, these paintings explore our shared struggle to understand the long-lasting impacts of our existence.

Born the third child of ten in an Irish Catholic family in Brooklyn, NY, Daniel spent his formative years obsessed with making spaces that provided an exciting, imaginative refuge from his large family living in small spaces. After graduating college, Smith entered a monastery and, for twenty-three years, was dedicated to the calling of prayer, meditation, and teaching. Daniel continued his study of art at the Central Academy of Art and Design in Beijing, China. With his community's support, he pursued an MFA in painting from The Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. Daniel took a painting sabbatical near Sienna, Italy, and became a full-time professional artist in 1999.

Housed in distinguished private and museum collections throughout the world, Daniel E. Smith's paintings are found in Australia, Aruba, Antigua, Canada, China, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and throughout the USA. Twelve architectural abstracts and two abstract landscapes reside in the permanent, contemporary collection of Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia.

 “It is not the places that are important but rather the spaces between...”

Artist Statement

The paintings you see are moments in time when I’ve experienced a visceral sense of my surroundings. I work to recreate those moments by memory, fully embracing the ephemeral qualities of such an act. My work explores our shared trait of responding to our environments, against the individual interpretations of that experience. Natural or constructed, each environment is collectively ours. The spaces within the works are stages to present human experiences. Ongoing connections to memory and hope, anticipation and fear, experience and uncertainty populate these spaces. It is not the places that are important but the spaces between reminding us that our existence comes with struggle. These works are an offering of continuance, recollection, discovery, and hope.

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Select Collectors List

The work of Daniel E. Smith is found in permanent collections all over the world. Here are a few notable collectors.

 
 

  • American InterContinental University

  • Boston Public Library

  • Bouhan Falligant LLC

  • Caesars Entertainment Corporation

  • HeSMA, Inc.

  • Hyatt Hotels Corporation

  • Marriot International

  • Radisson Hotel Group

  • Regency Capital Group

  • Safdie Architects, LLC.

  • Telfair Museums

  • The Brookdale Group

  • The Savannah College of Art and Design

  • Seiber Design

  • Vantosh Realty Group

  • 3Di Systems