WILD PLACES WILD HEARTS:
NOMADS OF THE HIMALAYA
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 25 years, his work has been exclusively based on experiences from extensive travel to remote places. The last six years Smutylo has been writing and depicting life in the most isolated areas of Ladakh, deep in the Himalaya. A culture barricaded from the rest of the world, the extraordinary nomads of the Changthang, roaming the Himalaya at 15,000 feet, and Tibetan Buddhist lamas living in remote monasteries have been his central interests. Previously, he explored the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, the Amazon, Antarctica and Patagonia, creating etchings, and paintings in oil and watercolour 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 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.

Allen Smutylo resides in Big Bay, Ontario.

 

 

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