27.9 x 35.6 cms
Welancora Gallery is pleased to present Metamorphoses | Μεταμορφώσεις, a solo presentation of a suite of self portraits and other works on paper and panel by Darryl Keith Babatunde Smith. The title of the show takes its name from Ovid’s 8 CE epic, Metamorphoses, which tells the story of the creation of the world to Julius Caesar’s death. The poem utilizes real events and mythology to confront issues related to transformation and love. Babatunde Smith’s extensive research and mastery of linguistics and classical studies provide the basic framework for the works in the show, as he utilizes myth and language as a way to understand his journey as a queer Black man. In the same way that one myth flows into another in Ovid’s epic, transformations occur across and throughout Smith’s works, each of which is a representation of a state of time and being in his life. Closely following the era of Greek and Roman antiquity, Smith refers to marble statues and black-figure/red-figure vase paintings, both of which have occasionally represented African people. Smith’s works utilize metalpoint (24 karat goldpoint and silverpoint), gold leaf, and egg tempera, the delicacy and softness of which further lend themselves to the artist’s self-healing, vulnerability, and reclamation of space through portraiture.
Darryl Keith Babatunde Smith (b. 1992, Georgetown, D.C.) is a Philadelphia-based artist. He earned his BFA in Painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and his MFA in Drawing with Anatomy from the New York Academy of Art. He has studied French, German, Latin, Ancient and Modern Greek which he uses in conjunction with his art practice. He has exhibited at Athens Art Gallery (Athens, Greece), Institute of Classical Architecture and Art (New York, NY), Equity Gallery (New York, NY), Steven Zevitas Gallery (Boston, MA), Rema Hort Mann Foundation (New York, NY), and SÍM Gallery (Reykjavík, Iceland). Smith has held the Velvetpark Residency (2022; Brooklyn, New York) and Athena Standards Residency (2019; Athens, Greece). In 2023, he was awarded the Philadelphia Fellowship for Black artists by Mural Arts Philadelphia. Smith presently teaches Anatomy for artists at Fleisher Art Memorial.
