Darryl Babatunde Smith

Jan 30

New York based artist and member Darryl Babatunde Smith crafts precise drawings in conversation with antiquity, bodily autonomy, and identity.

Born in Georgetown, D.C. in 1992, Darryl Babatunde Smith started making art as a way of interpreting foreign languages as opposed to translating them in English. He studied French, German, and Latin in high school and later began to learn Ancient and Modern Greek on his own. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he completed his BFA in Painting, and at the New York Academy of Art where he obtained his MFA in Drawing and Anatomy. Through Darryl’s knowledge of Latin and Greek, he immerses himself in antiquity. He uses Greco-Roman symbols and traditional Renaissance techniques such as silverpoint drawing and egg tempera painting to connect personal narratives with Greco-Roman ideologies and philosophies.

*Drunken with love,* 24-carat goldpoint, silverpoint and gouache on mineral paper, 7.5”x7.5”

“Greco-Roman antiquity and myths are vital to how I go about life. My art is, among many things, a physical manifestation and a series of contemplations on personal experiences. They are made in a state of meditation as exemplified by the materials which also require a precision in handling. With metalpoint drawing every line is a thought process.

My works also serve as a type of creation similar to literature and are synonymous with the act of writing poetry. Draiwng from ancient sculptures, descriptions of ancient painting, and hymns to gods and goddesses, I create spaces for myself to exist. This, of course, leads me to areas in which I find extreme comfort such as in Dionysian myths. Thre is a joy and liberation that exude from these Bacchich scenes and through my art I yearn to experience that same freedom.”

*To Aphrodite (to the back)*, 24-carat goldpoint and silverpoint on mineral paper, 8.5”x9”

“Currently my work has shiften from the pain-to-freedom journey, as expressed in tragedies, to what I like to call bodily autonomy. There are moments when I ask myself „who" I am, which birings up inquiries about identity, but my new drawings help me also answer the question of „what" I am. I am a breathing, fleshy being that can sense and feel. Framing all these questions through the lens of the myth, I fall back to literature and realize that my body and flesh are capable of evoking hymns, odes, and poetry.”