Portland artist Arvie Smith paints beautifully, with luscious glowing color and fluid brushwork. His large, ambitious canvases reveal a baroque sensibility. His adept use of flowing line and animated figurative compositions appear to draw inspiration from artists like Jean-Antoine Watteau and Jean-Honor\u00e9 Fragonard. Less romantic and more stridently political, Smith\u2019s subject matter is drawn directly from his African American roots. The artist was born in 1938\u2014when he was growing up he was colored, not black; Aunt Jemima was proudly emblazoned on pancake packages; and Shirley Temple was tap-dancing with Bojangles (Bill Robinson). In the 1960s there were riots in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles where he had lived, and when he lived in San Francisco\u2019s Haight-Ashbury there were hippies and the dawning of \u201cdiversity.\u201d Smith\u2019s paintings mine a lifetime of change to debunk negative stereotypes. The paintings are brilliantly tough, ironically sexy, and illustrate shocking depictions of lynching and Ku Klux Klan persecution\u2014all with a brilliantly sensuous, masterful touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n APEX is an ongoing series of exhibitions of Northwest-based artists, curated by Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art. The APEX series is supported in part by The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Endowments for Northwest Art and The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.<\/em><\/p>","excerpt":"","slug":"apex-arvie-smith","image":{"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Arvie-Smith_Dem-Golden-Slippers.jpg","id":8933,"extension":"jpg","width":1024,"height":576,"filesize":376994,"sizes":{"medium":{"width":700,"height":394,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":112089,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Arvie-Smith_Dem-Golden-Slippers-700x394.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"width":270,"height":270,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":36698,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Arvie-Smith_Dem-Golden-Slippers-270x270.jpg"},"medium_large":{"width":768,"height":432,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":128452,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Arvie-Smith_Dem-Golden-Slippers-768x432.jpg"},"small":{"width":375,"height":500,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":76511,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Arvie-Smith_Dem-Golden-Slippers-375x500.jpg"},"medium-large":{"width":900,"height":506,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":168883,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Arvie-Smith_Dem-Golden-Slippers-900x506.jpg"},"card":{"width":904,"height":565,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":184406,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Arvie-Smith_Dem-Golden-Slippers-904x565.jpg"},"post":{"width":975,"height":500,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":174427,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Arvie-Smith_Dem-Golden-Slippers-975x500.jpg"}}},"all_day":false,"start_date":"2016-07-30 08:00:00","start_date_details":{"year":"2016","month":"07","day":"30","hour":"08","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"end_date":"2017-03-12 17:00:00","end_date_details":{"year":"2017","month":"03","day":"12","hour":"17","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_start_date":"2016-07-30 15:00:00","utc_start_date_details":{"year":"2016","month":"07","day":"30","hour":"15","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_end_date":"2017-03-13 00:00:00","utc_end_date_details":{"year":"2017","month":"03","day":"13","hour":"00","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"timezone":"America\/Vancouver","timezone_abbr":"","cost":"","cost_details":{"currency_symbol":"$","currency_code":"USD","currency_position":"prefix","values":[]},"website":"","show_map":false,"show_map_link":false,"hide_from_listings":false,"sticky":false,"featured":false,"categories":[{"name":"Exhibitions","slug":"exhibitions","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":17,"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","description":"","parent":0,"count":201,"filter":"raw","id":17,"urls":{"self":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories\/17","collection":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories"}}],"tags":[],"venue":{"id":290,"author":"1","status":"publish","date":"2023-03-28 10:28:29","date_utc":"2023-03-28 17:28:29","modified":"2024-03-07 10:38:06","modified_utc":"2024-03-07 18:38:06","url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/venue\/portland-art-museum\/","venue":"Portland Art Museum","description":" The Museum is conveniently located on the historic Park Blocks in the center of downtown Portland, which is easy to get around by public transit or on foot. The Portland Business Alliance has installed way-finding signs which direct you to the cultural district, where the Museum is located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is generally plenty of street parking surrounding the Museum. These spaces range from 1 \u2013 4 hours and can be paid for using a credit card or the Parking Kitty app<\/a>. There are also surface parking lots, and parking garages within 1 \u2013 4 blocks of the Museum. The closest surface lot is located at SW Main St. between SW 10th Ave. and Park Ave, and there are dedicated accessible and van accessible spaces. This lot accepts credit card or the Reef app<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting to get to the Museum by public transportation is straightforward and economical. The bus and streetcar travel directly past the Museum, and the MAX light rail has a stop only four blocks away.\u00a0TriMet\u2019s Trip Planner<\/a>\u00a0gives you step-by-step travel directions from your location by bus, light rail, or streetcar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Transportation assistance is available through TriMet\u2019s network of fully accessible bus and MAX lines<\/a> and its LIFT service<\/a>, which is available for trips where a disability prevents the use of bus or MAX.<\/p>","slug":"portland-art-museum","address":"1219 SW Park Ave","city":"Portland","province":"OR","state":"OR","zip":"97205","phone":"(503) 226-2811","stateprovince":"OR","json_ld":{"@type":"Place","name":"Portland Art Museum","description":"<p>The Museum is conveniently located on the historic Park Blocks in the center of downtown Portland, which is easy to get around by public transit or on foot. The Portland […]<\/p>\\n","url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/venue\/portland-art-museum\/","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"1219 SW Park Ave","addressLocality":"Portland","addressRegion":"OR","postalCode":"97205"},"telephone":"(503) 226-2811","sameAs":""},"show_map":true,"show_map_link":true,"global_id":"portlandartmuseum.org?id=290","global_id_lineage":["portlandartmuseum.org?id=290"]},"organizer":[],"custom_fields":[],"json_ld":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Event","name":"APEX: Arvie Smith","description":"<p>Overview Portland artist Arvie Smith paints beautifully, with luscious glowing color and fluid brushwork. His large, ambitious canvases reveal a baroque sensibility. His adept use of flowing line and animated […]<\/p>\\n","image":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Arvie-Smith_Dem-Golden-Slippers.jpg","url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/event\/apex-arvie-smith\/","eventAttendanceMode":"https:\/\/schema.org\/OfflineEventAttendanceMode","eventStatus":"https:\/\/schema.org\/EventScheduled","startDate":"2016-07-30T08:00:00-07:00","endDate":"2017-03-12T17:00:00-07:00","location":{"@type":"Place","name":"Portland Art Museum","description":"<p>The Museum is conveniently located on the historic Park Blocks in the center of downtown Portland, which is easy to get around by public transit or on foot. The Portland […]<\/p>\\n","url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/venue\/portland-art-museum\/","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"1219 SW Park Ave","addressLocality":"Portland","addressRegion":"OR","postalCode":"97205"},"telephone":"(503) 226-2811","sameAs":""},"performer":"Organization"},"is_virtual":false,"virtual_url":null,"virtual_video_source":""}Parking<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Public transit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n