The Memory of Water
by Allen Smutylo

Allen Smutylo — Biographical Summary

Born in Toronto in 1946, Allen Smutylo is an Ontario College of Art honour graduate and a member of the Ontario Society of Artists.

For the past 30 years, his work has been exclusively based on experiences from extensive travel to remote places. He has extensively explored the Canadian Arctic and the central Himalaya, as well as to Greenland, the Amazon, Antarctica, Patagonia, the Indian sub-continent and Rajasthan. His etchings, mixed media, and paintings in oil and watercolour have been based on these travels.

Smutylo's images usually depict aspects of a trip's specific experiences - these might include geophysical elements, land and marine biology, and figurative images portraying current life as well as the imprint of previous lives. These ideas are often collaged, conveying a 'land memory' or a mythology of place. His work depicts harshest of environments seldom witnessed and the sustainability of the people and culture that call, or have called, such wild places home.

Allen Smutylo's work is included in over 300 corporate and public collections. His work has been exhibited in dozens of solo shows and countless group shows nationally and internationally. He has won numerous awards including Graphex and the prestigious Sapparo International Print Biennial. His adventures and art were featured in Radio-Canada's film The Last Frontier. His previous book, Wild Places Wild Hearts won the Best Adventure / Travel Book at the Banff Mountain Book Festival. The Globe and Mail called that book "a profound and poignant meditation on the connection between landscape and culture."

Allen Smutylo resides in Big Bay, Ontario.

 

 

Allen Smutylo
504095 Grey Road 1
Georgian Bluffs, Ontario, N0H 2T0
Canada
email: allensmutylo@bmts.com