Palo Gallery is pleased to present David Smalling’s debut solo exhibition Wood and Water, a major new body of work in which the artist returns to his early experience of life growing up on the Caribbean island of Jamaica. The show’s title is derived from the Arawakan word Xaymaca meaning 'land of wood and water', a phrase used to describe Jamaica due to its rich vegetation, majestic rivers, and beautiful coastal waters.
In Wood and Water, Smalling introduces a new series of paintings that recognize and act as a commentary on his reinterpretations of Caribbean high and low culture. Visually rich canvases consider stories ranging from his intimate childhood moments to the colonial history of his homeland. Smalling takes inspiration from diverse sources, including Old Master portraiture, Jamaican folklore, and twentieth-century cinema, to produce investigative compositions of a nuanced and challenging aesthetic rooted in the artifice and extravagance of Rococo and Northern Mannerism. Several canvases in the series utilize novel compositional devices that simultaneously reconsider the art historical traditions of portraiture, still-life & landscape painting.
Through the close study and interpretation of the stylistic practices and compositional structures of sixteenth-century European painting, Smalling tackles contemporary issues of race, gender, and agency through scenes of Jamaican folklore. The ‘River Mumma’ is a recurring part of the artist’s iconography and a cornerstone of his visual vocabulary. A term from Jamaican mythology, River Mumma refers to a mystical and oftentimes female water spirit or mermaid-like being associated with rivers, waterfalls, and other bodies of water in Jamaican folklore. Depicted as an enchanting and seductive woman with long flowing hair, River Mummas are often half- human and half-fish, acting as guardians of the Caribbean waterways.
The striking red and maroon hues in several paintings are a reference to the complex and violent history of Jamaica’s Bauxite mining industry. An exploitative industry, with revenues that could support the country’s entire economy, has instead been responsible for the destruction of natural ecosystems, with meager financial gain to local communities. Smalling’s investigation of the Bauxite industry is just one example of the interweaving of socio-political history with his personal insecurities and relationships. Scenes in the series interrogate associations between friendship and betrayal, sex and luck, money and class, against a backdrop of Jamaican folklore, history, and neo-colonial issues.
