Lamont Gallery Features Lance Smith Artwork
(February 2, 2010 - March 30, 2010)

The Dacotah Prairie Museum proudly announced the opening of a Gallery exhibit that featured Aberdeen artist, Lance Smith. The exhibit opened on Tuesday, February 2 and remained open until March 30, 2010. It highlighted Smith’s new paintings and carved spirit horses. The paintings included large original acrylic works on canvas, several stunning limited edition prints and wood carved horse figures which are a contemporary translation of the original horse dance stick used in traditional dancing. These horse figures have been carved from several types of wood and further embellished with paint, feathers, fur, leather and beading to represent a specific horse with a unique character.

Lance Smith was born and raised in northeastern Oklahoma. He is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation. Lance has made his home in Aberdeen, SD, for over 16 years and it is here that he met his wife, Lanni, who is Dakota/Lakota. The couple have a five-year-old son, Mercury.

Lance has been painting professionally since 2001. He is a self-taught artist with no formal education in the arts. Prior to 2001, he dabbled in pencil and ink drawings, and   believed that he had a gift for artistic expression and creativity. Lance believes that his natural talents are a gift from his creator and has been concentrating in recent years on developing these gifts and talents to a higher level.

His main style of working involves creating images from his imagination. Smith rarely uses photographs or objects or other artist’s works for inspiration in painting his images. True art is healing and has a message, Smith contents, and is intended for all people regardless of their race, creed, social status or religion. His art reflects his inner thoughts and perceptions and is expressed through the free use of his painting medium. Recently, Lance has also worked with a mentor, a master carver who is teaching him the craft of wood carving, which he uses to create his “spirit horse” carvings. There were seven of these carvings included in the exhibit.

Even though his art can be classified as Native American Art, Lance puts an emphasis on the universal similarities of all Native peoples to promote unity and acceptance among all people.

For information on past exhibits in the Lamont Gallery, please click here