MFA Building Print

Dana Richard Smith, a self-taught painter whose brilliantly colored, emotive canvases have earned him the admiration of scruffy punks as well as considerably less scruffy gallery owners, is famous for his images of the people and places in the city of St. Louis. An adept and nuanced painter who in his subject matter has become a kind of archivist of local performances, events and buildings that would otherwise have been relegated to obscurity. Smith combines an unmistakable atmosphere of indie-rock spirit with a kind of folk expertise in the way that his subjects are painted which serves to equate Dana's strong connection to his subjects and urgency to get them on canvas with acrylic and spray paint.