Artifacts + Viruses

​The Department of Art and Design presents "Artifacts and Viruses," an exhibition showcasing the paintings of life partners Carrie Mae Smith and Greg Watson. Smith, an alum (UD MFA 2013), draws inspiration from diverse sources, depicting items from museum collections, estate sales, and ingredients from her own cooking. Rooted in her experiences as a migrant farmer and private chef on Martha’s Vineyard, Smith's work reference’s themes of class, labor, friendship, tradition, love, and utility. Greg Watson, a painter, and Materials & Application Specialist at Golden Artist Colors, explores the physicality of paint materials and how they operate in layers. Veils of paint cover up textures and the history of the painting below; much like how a virus functions, fusing layers of paint over previous imagery, invading and taking over the surfaces. The artists will conduct studio visits with graduate students and give an artist talk after the closing reception.​

​Carrie Mae Smith earned an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of Delaware (2013) and a four-year certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (2005). She has received numerous awards and grants including the Clowes Fellowship Full Scholarship, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Inc. Artist Grant; and the Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation, Artist Grant. She has exhibited her work internationally and nationally, with recent solo exhibitions at Lowell Ryan Projects, Los Angeles, CA; the Locust Grove Estate, Poughkeepsie, NY; and The Berman Museum of Art, Collegeville, PA. For more info: https://www.carriemaesmith.com/

​Greg Watson earned an MFA in painting from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN (2015) and a BFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, PA (2005). He joined the Materials and Application Specialist team at Golden Artist Colors as their Oil Paint Specialist in 2016. In his position at Golden, he has led workshops about painting materials at F.I.T. and the Painting Center in NYC, R.I.S.D., and most recently at Yale graduate school of painting. He has presented his ongoing research about oil paint over acrylics to conservators at the Tate Britain, Queens University Canada, University of Valencia, Spain, University of Pisa, Italy, and the University of Delaware. He also writes articles for Just Paint.org. Find him on Instagram @gregorian_rants or at Golden Artist Colors at gwatson@goldenpaints.com.​​​