Daniel Smith: Taking Wildlife Realism To The Next Level
By Todd Wilkinson

Painter Daniel Smith, who is equal parts hermit, aesthete, and explorer of the outback, has never thought of himself as being a visual provocateur. World events have thrust him, his contemporaries, and their novel interpretations of wild nature into the middle of a global discussion about the state of our planet.

Who could have thought that classical wildlife art would one day be considered simultaneously accessible and avant-garde? Who would have guessed that images of animals would loom large as perhaps the most potent icons of our time?

Animals are telltale totems, not only of the past, but of a yet uncertain future. The opening of the one-man exhibition, "Animal Magnetism: The Wildlife Art of Daniel Smith" at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is the latest validation of Smith's growing stature in this unique and provocative artistic genre. "In my opinion, Dan Smith is truly one of America's great wildlife painters," says John Geraghty, board member of the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles and a prominent art collector.