Christopher Owen Smith
Born in 1969
Columbus College of Art & Design 1987-1989
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 1990-1992
Ceramic/sculptural apprenticeship with Kakuho Saito-san in Fukui Prefecture 1993
About what I do
“Make and break, break and make.” - Kakuho Saito-san, Shikimi, Mikata-cho, Mikata-gun, Fukui-ken, Japan
My work-flow includes charcoal and graphite drawings, photography, painting, and mixed media collages created with woodblock relief prints, drawings, found and digitally-printed materials.
Much of my current artwork focuses on the lives of local wildlife and plants, with a particular focus on the light and atmosphere in their world. Many are reverential, some are playful, while other works reflect animals dealing with and being distracted by human industrial residue.
Chance and a natural economy of marks are essential aspects of my process as I strive to use texture like painters use color.
Exhibitions and Projects
Wild Pulp/The Open Forge
2010-Ongoing A fine art stationery line featuring charcoal drawings, the Bark Animal collection, the Nest Building series, the Bright Souls, and the Stone Dinosaurs. It’s been stocked in boutique shops, natural history and science museums throughout the U.S. and Canada. Wild Pulp has received industry accolades from The National Stationery Show, was featured in home living periodicals, Crate and Barrel’s catalog, and on West Elm’s blog. All Wild Pulp note cards are printed on 100% post-consumer waste paper which utilized wind energy for it’s production, and the prints are made in studio with archival pigment inks on heirloom quality cotton rag papers.
Solo Exhibitions
2021 Being There, Eppig Gallery at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, Cleveland, Ohio
2012 By Wing and By Hoof - Charcoal drawings of Christopher Owen Smith, Malvina J. Freedson Gallery, Lakewood, Ohio
2011 Fauna. Charcoal Drawings of Christopher Owen Smith, The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, Shaker Heights, Ohio
1999-2009 Independent studio exhibits
Two-Person Exhibitions
2015 Paper, Ink and Clay, with Jing Jing Luo, FAVA (The Firelands Association for the Visual Arts), Oberlin, Ohio
1996 Drawing, Painting and Installation, with Abe Olvido, Cabaret Dada, Cleveland, Ohio
1996 One Evening 03.31.96, with Abe Olvido - Exhibit and Classical Performance, Dobama Theater, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
1995 New Works, with Abe Olvido, Conneaut Community Center, Conneaut, Ohio
1989 New Works, with Abe Olvido, Prudential Short North Office, Columbus, Ohio
1988 Works, with Abe Olvido, Amelia A. Salerno Law Office, Short North, Columbus, Ohio
1988 New Works, with Abe Olvido, Avante Garde, Short North, Columbus, Ohio
Group Exhibitions
2025 OPEN YARDS III, Yard Projects at Worthington Yards, Cleveland, Ohio
2023 Foot Squared, Yard Projects at Worthington Yards, Cleveland, Ohio
2022 FRESH Juried Exhibition, 2nd Place, Summit Artspace, Akron, Ohio
2022 Illustrious Gravitas, Yard Projects at Worthington Yards, Cleveland, Ohio
2018 17th Annual Holiday Show, Heights Arts Gallery, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
2017 16th Annual Holiday Show, Heights Arts Gallery, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
2016 Things That Fly, Heights Arts Gallery, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
2016 15th Annual Holiday Show, Heights Arts Gallery, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
2015 14th Annual Holiday Show, Heights Arts Gallery, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
2015 On The Wing, Guren Art Gallery at the Cleveland Botanical Garden
2014 13th Annual Holiday Show, Heights Arts Gallery, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
2010 Guild of Nature Artists, The West Woods Nature Center, Russell, Ohio
1998 City Artists At Work, Artists of the Quadrangle & Midtown Corridor, Heller Building, Cleveland, Ohio
1997 Investigations and Definitions, Crane Studio, Cleveland, Ohio
1996 4x4x11: 4 Legs Show, Spaces Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio