TODD CAMPLIN + DAVID G.SMITH
Opens: Saturday, November 3, 5-8 p.m. Valet available
On View: November 3-December 1, 2018
Todd Camplin has been abstracting text into detailed ink drawings for over a decade. Often taking months to complete individual works this painstaking process involves the repetition of small words, letters and marks evocative of highly detailed maps and textiles. Camplin has been working with abstracted text since 2003 and focuses on several different approaches with the idea of abstracted text and containment that includes: box designs, filling the paper, and dropping the box out of the design. From afar they appear like multi-colored geometric abstractions yet upon closer inspection one can see compressed letters and phrases creating a completely new narrative.
Todd Camplin was born in 1973 in South Bend, Indiana. In 1998 he earned a B.F.A. from Western Kentucky University. In 2006 he received an M.A. in Arts and Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas. In the spring of 2010, he received an M.F.A. from the University of North Texas in Denton. Todd is currently represented by Holly Johnson Gallery in Dallas. He currently resides in Jefferson, Texas.
David G. Smith is a Dallas-based visual artist, freelance code developer, and an adjunct undergraduate lecturer at Southern Methodist University, Meadows School of the Arts.
After retiring in 2014 from 21+ years of military service, all in operational assignments as a helicopter aviator, he is now pursuing a professional art practice. Dave finished Army flight training in 1993. He flew the UH-1 Huey and the UH-60 Blackhawk until 2000 when he left the active Army. He returned to active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard in 2002 and flew the MH-65 Dolphin for 12 years, retiring in 2014. Originally from Erie, Pennsylvania, Smith moved across the U.S. several times while growing up and served nearly half of his military career overseas. As a result, his worldwide travels, exposure to many cultures, and unusual life experiences over the past 3 decades have given him a unique perspective.
Smith’s eclectic work experiments across media and involves emotional introspection of his experiences and influence on others in the world. He is on an eternal quest for themes that bind people, blend cultures, and celebrate humanity. His pieces often challenge stereotypes and transcend divisive, social, and political boundaries. With one foot in the world of painting and one world in the world of computers, he readily combines art with technology, the traditional with the cutting-edge, and the ancient with the futuristic. As such, his work explores the space between fine art painting and computer coding, in search of an art that is the hybrid of historical tradition and future technology.
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