aaron smith

Aaron Smith, born October 18, 1969 in Cincinnati, Ohio, currently resides in the small Appalachian city Nelsonville, Ohio with his wife Ann Judy ( also an artist). Aaron is a full time artist who specializes in oil painting. He also has worked extensively in large scale murals, installation pieces, photography, and intaglio printmaking. He is the co-founder of Majestic Galleries, a contemporary art space. He graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1998. He is currently a second year graduate candidate in painting at Ohio University where he is pursuing various series based on urban landscape. Prior to that Aaron was working on his Nelsonville Series for more than a decade. During that time, he has shown the series in over twenty solo, group, invitational, and juried group exhibitions. His works were praised by Dialogue Magazine as skillfully painted, and images and articles have appeared in the Columbus Dispatch, The Athens Insider, and the A News. He was also a recipient of the 2003 Ohio Art Council Fellowship, as well as first place in The Spirit of Appalachia, an exhibition in the Ohio State University Urban Art Space for the Nelsonville Series.

This series also spent 3 years at Galleries Sternberg Located in the John Hancock Building 875 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2850 Chicago, IL 60611, and is now at Majestic Galleries 20 Public Square, Nelsonville, OH 45764. The Nelsonville Series is a sequel to the Park Series of paintings (1995-1999).

Some works that branched off of the Nelsonville series are a triad of paintings that was commissioned for the full length feature movie Trailer Park. This small collaborative series was inspired by various scenes in the film interpretation of a collection of short stories by author Russell Banks,directed by Frederick Lewis. These works were used for print material including the show poster, dvd cover and inside fold, and the catalog.