Clifford D. Smith

Clifford Smith (b. 1955, Havelock, NC) is a self-taught artist who refigures quotidian materials—including eggshells, plant matter, plastic, synthetic cord, and natural fibers—as sumptuously textural abstractions. Prior to beginning to practice as an artist, Smith was a professional dancer, performing in New York, Chicago, Atlantic City, and Las Vegas from the late 1970s through
the 1980s.

In the 1990s, he began producing large-scale, circular weavings influenced by mandalas. Juxtaposing cords of different hues, weaves, and surface qualities, he achieved complex color studies and hypnotic designs. Smith has reflected that the fabrication of his compositions is a meditative act for which he must “balance mind and body.” This slow, labor-intensive process results in works that take time to see. Smith began expanding to other media in the early 2000s, persisting with geometric, nonrepresentational forms. Dyeing eggshells, he arranged them like mosaics in vibrant concentric designs symbolic of new beginnings. In the late 2000s, Smith applied this same methodology to irregular fragments of wood and plant fiber, limning each piece with halos of acrylic paint, after the fashion of Japanese kintsugi, to create intricate patterns that suggest rupture, restoration, and resilience. 

Smith’s work has been exhibited at A Different Light Bookstore, New York; Tenri Cultural Institute, New York; and Broward Community College, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 2001, he contributed work to Visual AIDS’s Positively Art calendar.