Macon artist Cedric Smith debuted his Horsepower Exhibit Jan. 12, in the Leland Gallery inside Ennis Hall at Georgia College & State University.
“My art is a teachable moment,” said Smith. “I like to think of it as a visual of American history, where my audience can see potential and may discover something they want to do or would enjoy.”
Smith grew up in Philadelphia in the 1970s and now resides in Macon. Originally, Smith worked as a barber for eight years before a client introduced him to their art studio. He had never known art was a career prior to this introduction and soon after began his art journey.
“When I went to his studio that really influenced me to become an artist. At that time, I did not know there was a path to do my art fulltime,” said Smith. “It was not something I was well-informed of when I was growing up.”
According to his exhibit biography, Smith is a self-taught painter and photographer. His art is primarily inspired by the absence and negative portrayals of African Americans in the media and on the labels of popular brands.
“I remember when I used to stay with my grandmother that all the portrayals of people on advertisements were white. As I got older, I continued to think about how I could open discussion about this topic and offer others a way to see opportunities that weren’t shown to me. So, most paintings have become ‘what if’ scenarios based on what something or someone would look like if they had been portrayed in that time period or on a specific brand.”
According to Smith, his thoughts were about the what ifs and the impact they might have made on young African American children. If they had seen these portrayals, what could it have inspired? Could different portrayals in the media have changed the trajectory of someone’s life?
These questions led him to creating a series based on history and topics of interest.
“I had these questions about how different someone may have thought of their future or their heritage. For example, how different would it have been for me if I had seen a portrayal of an African American artist or an artist's career at all,” said Smith.
For example, one of Smith’s first series was inspired by his favorite hip-hop group at the time, Public Enemy, who had an album titled “Most of My Heroes Still Don't Appear on No Stamp.”
From this singular line, Smith would be inspired to create a series of paintings where he turned average people into postage stamps.
According to Smith some of these professions included teachers, mail carriers and more.
“I always had a fondness for horses, and I began to dig into history on the connection between blacks and horses. When I started that, the flood gates opened with inspiration,” said Smith. “I found out the first Kentucky Derby jockeys were black, and I noticed that as money and popularity increased that they were pushed out and many of the first jockeys in general were enslaved people.”
The Horsepower Exhibit is a 16-piece collection of paintings highlighting African American cowboys, jockeys, soldiers and hunters. Inspired by his research into the connection of horses and African Americans, Smith chose to portray a “what if African Americans were sponsored by… were jockeys… were hunters…” etc. in his series.
“The painting Jockey Cigars was a “What if the jockeys had endorsements?”
So, for that painting, the endorsement is cigars,” said Smith.
“The painting features Jimmy Winkfield of the Kentucky Derby who was a thoroughbred jockey and horse trainer that won back-to-back Kentucky Derbys.”
According to Smith, he also discovered that 25% of the population of cowboys were black and it was very shocking to him. “You know I love watching Western movies but there is hardly any representation of blacks in those movies. That was one of the reasons the statistic shocked me so much,” said Smith.
“So I wanted to portray an African American cowboy like Brass Reed who was the first black deputy U.S. marshal or Bill Pickett who created rodeo steer wrestling, or bulldogging.”
When creating his paintings, Smith stated that he is trying to be an “encyclopedia” or teacher for those who may not know the history behind something because of the media’s lack of portrayal.
Moving forward, his biography states that he is working on a new Couture series focused on portrayals in the fashion world and a Southern Trees series that repaints trees, “not as a place of death but as a perch upon which beautiful black birds may take flight.”
“I just want my art to be a teaching moment and I hope to feature more of my series at institutions like Georgia College where it can impact students and more communities,” said Smith.
The Horsepower Exhibit will be open through Feb. 9 for viewing with a special reception on Feb. 9 from 5-7 p.m.