About
Photo by C.W. Newell 2024
“The work that interests me engages intelligence and emotion. My goal in art making is to find complex situations related mostly to light and measurement, and carries with it an energy that is intuitive and open.”
Installation from Ty Smith: I Long for the Words, 2024.
I Long for the Words (Summer Drawing 3, 2023
Image: Jordan Mahy
Ty Smith is an American artist, art educator, and curator who lives and works in Birmingham, AL. A native of Montgomery, AL, he graduated from the University of Alabama, in 2001 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. While working on his undergraduate degree, Smith studied with Professor Alvin C. Sella. In 2006, Smith moved to Oklahoma where he received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Tulsa in 2009. In Tulsa, he studied with painter Mark Lewis, as well as artists Deborah Kahn and Stanley Lewis, during a summer program at the Chautauqua School of Art. Smith currently teaches as Adjunct Faculty for the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Samford University.
Smith's work is heavily aligned with the traditions of post-war Minimalism and the Color Field movement. His studio practice focuses primarily on abstract drawings and paintings that emphasize the sensitivity of raw materials, invented imagery, and the poetic qualities of negative space. His work is loaded with tradition and experimentation. He has extensive exhibition experience and his work has appeared in museums and other venues throughout the U.S.
Studio, 2024.
File / Complete CV (pdf)
Select Solo Exhibitions:
2025 A Place for Light, Hoover Public Library, Birmingham, AL
2024 Ty Smith: I Long for the Words, Scott Miller Projects, Birmingham, AL
2024 Ty Smith: For You, and for Me, Visual Arts Center Gallery, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS
2020 Edge and Vision, works by Astri Snodgrass & Ty Smith. Vulcan Gallery at Alabama School of Fine Art, Birmingham, AL
2018 Friends Gallery, The Hoover Public Library, Hoover, AL
2017 Structure for Seeing, Ty Smith & Jurgen Tarrasch, Durbin Gallery, Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, AL
2016 Forty-Nine Drawings, Project Space, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL
2012 Fish Nor Fowl, Ty Smith & Ken Dubin, Times Club, Prairie Lights, Iowa City, IO
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Select Group Exhibitions:
2026 Spring Invitational Exhibition, (Anne Herbert, Ty Smith, Curtis Shannon, Changsong Woo), Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center, Auburn, AL
2025 Art & Design Faculty Exhibition, Samford University, Birmingham, AL
The Susan N. McCollough Fine Arts Initiative - A UA Biennial Event at The University of Alabama Gallery, Tuscaloosa, AL
Stuff: Kelly Bryant, Bethany Moody, Ty Smith, & Jessica Wohl, Moon Gallery, Berry College, Mt Berry, GA
2024 Continuum: Alums of CVA, CVA School of Art Gallery, Chautauqua NY
2022 Guiding Hands: Exhibition by Adjunct Faculty, Art Lab, University of Alabama at Birmingham
2019 28th Annual Juried Exhibition (Juror: Ro Lohin, artist, NY), Bowery Gallery, New York, NY
Winter Juried Exhibition (Juror: Elisa Jensen, artist, NY), Blue Mountain Gallery, New York, NY
Dis-Appearance: Works by Emily Bivens, Rebecca Hackemann, Joshua Huyser and Ty Smith (curated by Almut Haboeck, Montgomery, AL),
Biggin Gallery, Auburn University, Auburn, AL
2018 Interlude/Inquiry, UAB Faculty Exhibition, Department of Art & Art History, AEIVA, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL
Nature Rhythms (curated by Tara Stallworth Lee, Maggie King, and Susan Vitali), Ground Floor Contemporary, Birmingham AL
2016 Moleskine Mailer Collaboration, Tempus Project, Tampa, FL
2015 Mark Lewis and Former MFA Students, Mainline Gallery, Tulsa, OK
UGA-UAB Works on Paper Exchange, Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
2014 National Juried Exhibition (Juror: Jed Perl, writer, New York, NY), First Street Gallery, New York, NY
2013 Henry Zarrow Center for Art and Education, Tulsa, OK.
2012 National Juried Exhibition (Juror: Dore Ashton, writer), First Street Gallery, New York, NY
Auburn University Studio Art Faculty Exhibition, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn, AL (catalog)
2011 20th Annual Juried Exhibition (Juror: Stanley Lewis, artist), Bowery Gallery, New York, NY
University of New Hampshire MFA 2011 Invitational, University Museum, Durham, NH
Drawing Discourse (Juror: Alex Kanevsky), National Juried Contemporary
Drawing Exhibition, S. Tucker Cooke Gallery, University of North Carolina, Asheville, NC
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