Mary T. Smith, “I WE OUR”

Vibrant paintings are on offer in this exhibit devoted to the work of Mary T. Smith (1904–1995), a self-taught artist from Mississippi who first made her work during the 1970s after she retired from her job as a domestic servant and cook. Painting on plywood and corrugated metal, Smith created portraits and Biblical scenes, installing them outdoors in “yard shows” typical of African-American outsider artists in the Deep South. Smith favored bold colors, limning animals and figurative subjects with broad brushstrokes that she also used to spell out religious messages and other texts. The result was a kind of vernacular Expressionism that appears strikingly contemporary.