Allen Smutylo: Biographical Statement

I was born in Toronto in 1946. I was a founding member of Circle Arts, a co-operative art studio-gallery in Tobermory in 1969 and in 1970 graduated with honours from the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. I am a member of the Ontario Society of Artists.

    For the last 30 years my work has been based on experiences from extensive travelling. This includes over 25 expeditions in the far North, including: the Queen Charlotte Islands, Alaska, the Yukon, Baffin Is., Bylot Is., Devon Is., Ellesmere Is., Labrador, Iceland, and Greenland. As well I made numerous trips to Antarctica and to Patagonia. More recently I have been travelling in the Indian Tibetan border region of the Himalayas,and in the Indian subcontinent regions of Varanasi and Rajasthan.

    I work in a variety of mediums including; oil on canvas, watercolour, drawing, etching, monoprint, and a combination of other mixed media. My images usually depict specific experiences or places. These images often feature people that are surrounded or layered with other "memories" of place: such as geophysical forces, land and marine biology, and the imprint of previous or current cultures.

    My paintings and prints are included in over 200 public and corporate collections in Canada and abroad. My work has been exhibited in dozens of solo shows and countless group shows nationally and internationally.

    I have won numerous awards for my work, including the prestigious Sapparo International Print Biennial in Japan.

    My work and my adventures have been profiled in many magazine and newspaper articles in Canada and the United States. I have been the subject of three films, including the most recent, the Radio-Canada (Québec CBC) coproduction of the Jean Lemire film, The Last Frontier (the first film in the Nature of Art Series).

    I reside in Big Bay, Ontario.

Also see Resumé page.

Silent Boats: Etching and Chine-collé, 15"X32", ©1995