Native American Artist D.G. Smalling is hosting an art exhibit in the Cultural Engagement Center at Northern Oklahoma College during April.
An artist’s reception for Smalling will be held April 30 at 12:30 p.m.
Smalling’s work reflects his Choctaw heritage.
“My Choctaw heritage is a vital facet of my life,” he said. “The
Choctaw culture embraces minimalism in its traditional forms and lifestyles. I consider my work an extension of this tradition using modern materials.”
“My work has evolved into an exercise of contemporary Southeastern ‘neo-hieroglyphics,’he said. “By this I mean to re-approach the hieroglyphic art of my Choctaw heritage in a modern way both in terms of materials/techniques and subjects. The continuous line defines the contours of the subject, at which point I develop the contoured areas with paint or ink. In this way the neo-hieroglyph conforms to the old, but is dynamically fluid with motion and not rigid. The subjects I depict are rarely historical because I want to describe life today.”
Smalling has commissioned portraits of United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair, United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Conner, Justice Yvonne Kauger, United States Congressman Tom Cole, and Mr. T. Boone Pickens.
Smalling has a collection at the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Commissioned Gifts of a Grand Buffalo for Oklahoma City’s first native Mayor David Holt’s office (2018) and a Gourd-Dancer for HSH Prince Albert of Monaco 50th birthday (2008).
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