1943 Born in Durban, South Africa. Lives and works in Baltimore, MD
EDUCATION
1978 NHDAD Johannesburg College of Art, Johannesburg, South Africa.
1975 NDAD Johannesburg College of Art, Johannesburg, South Africa.
1963 BA University of Natal, Durban, South Africa.
SELECTED SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2022 Jo Smail: If All the World were a Blackbird, Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD,
Curator: Amy Eva Raehse
2020 Jo Smail: Bees with Sticky Feet, Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD
Curator: Amy Eva Raehse (catalogue)
Jo Smail: Flying with Remnant Wings, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Curator: Kristen Hileman (catalogue)
2018 Jo Smail and Paul Jeanes: Clippings, Voids and Banana Curry, Kohl Gallery, Washington College,
Chestertown, MD
2017 Jo Smail: The Past is Present, Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Amy Eva Raehse (catalogue)
2015 Jo Smail & William Kentridge: Dialogue, Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Amy Eva Raehse
14-15 Jo Smail: Leaning Over the Edge of the Moon, Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD,
Curator: Amy Eva Raehse (catalogue)
11-12 Jo Smail: Degrees of Absence, Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Amy Eva Raehse (catalogue)
2009 Jo Smail: Conjurations, Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Amy Eva Raehse (catalogue)
2008 The Limits of Language: A Selection from 10 Years, McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA
2007 Species of Love and Angels Footsteps, Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Amy Eva Raehse
2006 New Beginnings, Axis Gallery, New York, NY
2004 Degrees of Fluency, Heriard Cimino Gallery, New Orleans, LA, Curator: Margaret Evangeline
Jo Smail, Rockville Art Place, Rockville, MD
Jo Smail, Goya Girl Press & Contemporary Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2003 Jo Smail, Pinkard Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2002 Jo Smail, Goya Girl Press & Contemporary Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD
1997 Jo Smail, Rockville Art Place, Rockville MD, Curator: Jack Rasmussen
1990 Jo Smail, 55 Mercer Street, New York, NY
Jo Smail, Ombondi Gallery, New York, NY
1989 Jo Smail, Ombondi Gallery, New York, NY
1984 Jo Smail, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1981 Jo Smail, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1979 Jo Smail, Association of Arts, Pretoria, South Africa
1978 Jo Smail, Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
1977 Jo Smail, Johannesburg Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
Jo Smail, Fabian Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Thread Lines, Goya Contemporary Gallery, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Amy Eva Raehse
2024 From This Nature Springs, Goya Contemporary Gallery, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Amy Eva Raehse
Around the Table: Shared Experience | Open Conversations | Coming Together, Georgetown De La Cruz
Gallery, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
2023 The Trawick Prize: 20th Anniversary Emerald Award, American University Museum, Katzen Art Center,
Washington, DC
21-22 Fields and Formations: A Survey of Mid-Atlantic Abstraction, The Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE
Traveled to: American University Museum, Washington, DC, Curator: Kristen Hileman (catalogue)
2019 School 33 Art Center's 40th Anniversary Exhibition, School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MD
2017 Trawick Prize, Ruby Award Show, American University Museum, Katzen Art Center, Washington, DC
Painting not Painting, Sindikit, Baltimore, MD, Curators: Zoe Charlton and Tim Dowd
2016 Repurposed Realities, Goya Contemporary Gallery, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Amy Eva Raehse
2015 With Silence Comes Peace, Silber Gallery, Goucher College, Baltimore MD, Curator: Laura Amussen
Juried Faculty Exhibition MICA, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD, Juror: Barry Schwabsky
2014 Transformations, Mclean Project for the Arts, VA, Juror: Jack Rasmussen
Baltimore Artists + WPA + Mera Rubell = LOVE, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY,
Curator: Mera Rubell
2012 Philosophy of Figure, Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Amy Eva Raehse
It…, Hirshhorn Museum, Two Person Show with Fabienne Lasserre, Maryland Institute College
of Art, Baltimore, MD. Juror: Melissa Ho
Trawick Prize 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Gallery B, Bethesda, MD
2011 Becoming Something Found, Jolie Laide Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Sondheim Semi-Finalists, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Faculty Exhibition, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2010 The Marks of Six Painters, Gallery 447, Cambridge, MD
2008 Grand Prize Winners of Trawick Prize and Bethesda Painting Award, Fraser Gallery, Bethesda, MD
The Grey House that Thinks Itself into Your Head Without Asking, Fingston Gallery, Pace University,
New York, NY
The Commerce and Culture Series, The Center Club, Baltimore, MD
2007 Triangle Alumni DUMBO Arts Festival Exhibition 25, Brooklyn, NY
Trawick Prize Finalists, Creative Partners Gallery, Bethesda, MD
Strictly Painting 6, McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA, Curator: Kristen Hileman
Speaking of Silence 1, Sub-Basement Studios, Curator: Peter Brum
2006 Trawick Prize Finalists, Creative Partners Gallery, Bethesda, MD
2005 Soft Openings, Katzen Art Center, American University Museum, Washington, DC
Curator: Jack Rasmussen
Critics’ Picks: Just Looking, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Franklin Sirmans
2004 Inward Gazes, Goucher College, Towson, MD, Curator: Cara Ober
Trawick Prize Finalists, Creative Partners Gallery, Bethesda, MD
Prize Winners, Maryland State Art’s Council, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Peter DuBeau
Conversations, Collaboration with William Kentridge, Evergreen House, Baltimore, MD,
Curator: Barry Nemett
Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, DE
Joseloff Gallery, University of Hartford, Hartford, CO
Tufts University Gallery, Medford, MA
Bevier Gallery, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
Karl Drerup Gallery, Plymouth State University, NH
2003 Breaking New Ground, Wyman Arts Center, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Peter Brum
Fully Integrated, Degas Gallery, McLean, VA, Curators: Y. Chung and Andrea Pollan
The Fables of La Fontaine, Centre pour l’Art et la Culture, Aix-en-Provence, France
Curators: Koren Christofides, Ken Tisa & Robyn Chadwick
Exhibition Space of Temple University Rome, Italy
The Jacob Lawrence Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
The Meyerhoff Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2001 Artists of the Alfred & Trafford Klotz Residency at Rochefort-en-Terre, Pinkard Gallery, Maryland
Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2000 Musee du Chateau de Rochefort-en-Terre, Morbihan, France
1999 The Untroubled Mind, Vila Julie College, MD, Curator: Peter Brum
1998 Chance and Necessity, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Power Booth
St. Mary’s College, St. Mary’s City, MD
McLean Center for the Arts, McLean, VA
University of Ohio, Athens, OH
1998 Chance and Necessity Prints, Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD
WPA/Corcoran Art Auction, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Cross Currents ’98: Pure View, The Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Curator: Kristen Hileman
Empowerment Zone Artists, City Hall Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Biennial ’98, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
1997 Not So Simple, Gallery 901, Washington, DC, Curator: Annie Gawlak
Artist as Collector, Goucher College, Baltimore, MD, Curators: Bill Schmidt and Helen Glazer
Reunion Benefit Exhibition, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD
Out of the Ashes, Rosenberg Gallery, Goucher College, Baltimore, MD
1996 Natalie Knight Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1995 Then and Now, Maryland Institute, Montpelier Cultural Arts Center, Laurel, MD, Curator: Barry Nemett
1994 New Realities, Staib Gallery/Art Wall + B, New York, NY, Curator: Patricia Patton
Then and Now, Maryland Institute, Josiah White Exhibition Center, Jim Thorpe, PA
Works from the Garden, Four Person Show, School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MD
Curator: Jann Rosen-Queralt
Between the Sexes, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD
1993 Trask Gallery, The National Arts Club, New York, NY
Contemporary South African Art, Consulate General, New York, NY
1992 Triangle Artists, The Lorraine Kessler Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY
1991 Reverberations, Four Women Show, Frostburg University, Frostburg, MD
Enigmatic Expressions, Four Person Show, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD
Curator: Charlotte Cohen
1990 Maryland Art Place Benefit, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD, Curator: Susan Badder
Voices from South Africa, Contemporary Art against Apartheid, Stuart Levy Gallery, New York, NY
1989 Triangle Artist’s Workshop, Pine Plains, NY
1988 Faculty Exhibition, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
1986 Guest Artist Retrospective Invitational Exhibition, Johannesburg Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
Cape Town Triennial, Juried Exhibition, South African National Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
1985 Tributaries Contemporary South African Art Cross-cultural, Invitational Exhibition, European tour.
Sponsored by BMW
Women’s Festival of the Arts, Funda Gallery, Soweto, Gertrude Posel Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1984 Four Johannesburg Painters, National Touring Exhibition: South African National Gallery, Cape Town;
1820 Monument Gallery, Grahamstown; University of the Orange Free State Gallery, Bloemfontein;
Pretoria Art Museum; Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg; Durban Art Gallery, South Africa
1983 South African Contemporary Art, Invitational Exhibition, sponsored by BMW, South Africa
1981 Faculty, Fine Art Department, Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
1979 Association of Art, Johannesburg, South Africa
Faculty, Fine Art Department, Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
1978 Tel Aviv Art Fair Israel, Salon International d’art Tel Aviv, Israel
Touring Exhibition, USA, Invitational Exhibition, SA Prints
Renaissance ’78, SA Association of Art, Johannesburg, South Africa
Preview Tel Aviv Art Fair Exhibition, Total Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Group show, Association of Art, Johannesburg, South Africa
1976 Invitational Summer Show, Fabian Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
1975 Art South Africa Today, Biennial, Durban, South Africa, Juror: Clement Greenberg (Prize Winner)
1974 New Signatures, Pretoria, South Africa
SELECTED PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore MD
Canopy by Hilton Hotel Art Collection, Baltimore, MD
Chase Manhattan Bank, Johannesburg, South Africa
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY
Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
Durban Museum and Art Gallery, South Africa
Fidelity Collection
Gertrude Posel Collection, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Johannesburg Art Museum, South Africa
Johannesburg Chamber of Industries, South Africa
Johns Hopkins University Collection, Baltimore, MD
Mobil Corporation
National Gallery of South Africa, Cape Town
Premier Milling Group, Johannesburg, South Africa
Pretoria Art Museum, South Africa
University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
USA Embassy, Johannesburg, South Africa
AWARDS
2014 Nominated for Anonymous as A Woman
2012 Best of the Best, Sapphire, Trawick Prize Winner, selected from Trawick Prize winners of the past 10 years
2010 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award (Painting)
2007 Trawick Prize: Best in Show, Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards
Strictly Painting, McLean Project for the Arts
Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award (Painting)
Residency, Rochefort-en-Terre, France
2004 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award (Painting)
2003 Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellow, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
Residency, Rochefort-en-Terre, France
2000 Residency, Rochefort-en-Terre, France
1996 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
Residency Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center, Vermont
1995 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award (Painting)
1994 Residency Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center, Vermont
1992 Maryland Institute College of Art, Trustees Teaching Award
1991 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award (Painting)
1989 Triangle Artist’s Workshop, Pine Plains, New York
1975 Cambridge Shirt Award, Art South Africa Today
Abel Coetzee Award, Johannesburg College of Art
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Jo Smail: Flying With Remnant Wings, © Goya Contemporary, 2020, Essays by Karen Wilkin, Kristen Hileman
ISBN 978-1-7923-3015-5, Library of Congress Number 2020900771
Jo Smail: The Past is Present, © Goya Contemporary, 2017, Essays by Shannen Hill, Timothy App
ISBN: 978-1-5323-4938-6
Jo Smail: Leaning Over the Edge of the Moon, © Goya Contemporary, 2014, Essay by Amy Eva Raehse,
ISBN: 978-1-4951-3233-9
Jo Smail: Degrees of Absence, © Goya Contemporary, 2011
Art Collection of the United States Consulate General, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2011
Waking Up from the Inside Out: Jo Smail 1998 – 2009, © Goya Contemporary, 2009, Essays by Terence Maloon,
Karen Wilkin, ISBN: 978-1-61539-739-6, LoC#: 2009928019
The Hudson Review © VOL. LXII, NO. 4, Essay by Karen Wilkin, 2010
The Limits of Language: A Selection From 10 Years, © McLean Project For the Art, 2008, Text by Nancy Sausser
Trawick Prize Catalog, © Trawick Prize, 2007, 2006, & 2004
The Hudson Review© Volume LIX, No. 2, Essay by Karen Wilkin, 2006
Influence & Collaboration in Contemporary Art, © Evergreen House of Johns Hopkins University
Essay by Barry Nemett, 2003
Chance and Necessity, © Art Papers, 1999, Essay by Adam J. Lerner
15th Anniversary Celebration Catalog, © Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD, 1997
150 South African Paintings, by Lucy Alexander and Evelyn Cohen, © Struikhof Publishers, Cape Town,
South Africa, 1990, ISBN 10: 0947458255, ISBN 13: 9780947458256
Johannesburg Art and Artists: Selections from a Century, by Sheree Lissoos, © Cape Town Triennial,
Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1986. ISBN: 062012101 9780620102100. OCLC Number: 1925834
Tributaries: A View of Contemporary South African Art, AD Art Director (No 2 & No 3), © Johannesburg (BMW),
Johannesburg, South Africa, 1985
Cape Town Triennial Catalogue, Cape Town, South Africa, 1985
Four Johannesburg Painters, 1984
Art and Artists of South Africa by Esme Berman, p 49, 163, 166, 244, 300, 517, 519,
Balkema, Rotterdam and Cape Town, 1983
Jo Smail, © Goodman Gallery, South Africa, 1981, Essay by Terence Maloon
Art in South Africa - A Short Survey, by Frieda Harmsen, © Department of Information, Pretoria, 1977
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2022 Goofy Gravity and Weighty Gravitas: Jo Smail at Goya Contemporary by Barry Nemmett,
BaltimoreArt, Fall 2022
Women take the spotlight in a pair of art shows at the A.U. Museum by Mark Jenkins,
The Washington Post, March 2, 2022
Sitting in Uncertainty: Fields and Formations at the Katzen Arts Center, by Katie Hartley,
May 18, 2022
2021 Powerful Show of Art by women and non-binary artists working in the region today, at the
Delaware Contemporary, by Susan Isaacs, Art Blog, December 15, 2021
2020 Critics’ Picks, Jo Smail, by Andy Martinelli Clark, ARTFORUM, October 2020
In Conversation: Jo Smail with Louis Block, The Brooklyn Rail, July 2020
An Artist as Resilient as She is Joyous, Hyperallergic, May 9, 2020
Jo Smail’s Visual Poetry Transforms Loss Into Joy by Matthew King, Baltimore Magazine,
November 2020
Focus On: Jo Smail by Amy Raehse, Goya Contemporary, Summer 2020
Blank Canvas: 2020 Fall Arts Preview by Mary Carole McCauley, The Baltimore Sun, September 20
2018 Mid-Shore Arts: A Review of Jo Smail and Paul Jeanes at the Kohl by Mary McCoy, Chestertown Spy,
November 2018
2017 Jo Smail The Past is Present by Rebekah Kirkman, City Paper, Baltimore, September 13, 2017
Beginning Anew, Jo Smail at Goya Contemporary by Andy Martinelli Clark,
Full Bleed: A Journal of Art and Design, Issue 2
2016 Studio Visit, Ten Award-Winning Baltimore Artists in their Element, Jo Smail, Painter, Photographer,
Printmaker, BmoreArt Journal of Art + Ideas: Issue 2
2015 Compatriots Collaborate, Interview by Judith Krummeck, 91.5FM WBJC Baltimore, October 8, 2015
Palette Palace, Illustration, Baltimore Magazine, October 2015
Starting from Scratch, by Rebekah Kirkman, City Paper, Baltimore, September 30, 2015
Meet Me in the City, Jo Smail’s photographs and paintings respond to centuries of change in
Florence, by Marie Claire, City Paper, Baltimore, January 7, 2015
2014 Group Dynamics, by Cara Ober, Style Magazine, September 2014
2012 Jo Smail Wins the Mega-Champion "Best of the Best" "Sapphire" Trawick Prize, Bmoreart,
November 3, 2012, Baltimore, MD
The Trawick Prize Celebrates 10th Anniversary Baltimore Artist Wins $10,000 Prize,
by Jessica Ablamsky, Gazette, November 7, 2012
Baltimore, DC Artists Named Trawick Prize 10th Anniversary Winners by Erin Donahue,
ChevyChasePatch, November 5, 2012
The Trawick Prize 10th Anniversary Competition and Exhibit by Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post,
November 9, 2012
2012 Juried Faculty Exhibition “It…”, Decker & Meyerhoff & Pinkard Galleries Maryland Institute
College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Jo Smail at Goya Contemporary by Jennie Hirsh, Art in America, April 2012
Presence in Absentia by Cara Ober, Urbanite, January 3, 2012, Baltimore, MD
2010 At the Galleries by Karen Wilkin, Hudson Review, VOL. LXII, NO. 4, Winter
2009 A Year in Visual Art, Top Ten, Jo Smail, Conjurations at Goya Contemporary, Baltimore City Paper,
December 12, 2009
2007 The Searcher by Deborah McLeod, City Paper, October 31, Baltimore, MD
Baltimore Artist Wins Award by Glenn McNatt, The Baltimore Sun, September 11
Trawick Prize Winners, Arts Beat by Rachel Beckman, The Washington Post, September 6
2006 Art in Review: Jo Smail at Axis Gallery by Holland Cotter, New York Times, February 10, 2006
New Beginnings: Jo Smail (including collaborations with William Kentridge) at Axis Gallery, by Briget
Goodbody, Art on Paper, May-June 2006
Around the Galleries, Jo Smail at Axis Gallery, by Karen Wilken, Hudson Review, Summer 2006
2005 Jo Smail at Heriard-Cimino by Susan Elizabeth Ryan, Art in America, May 2005
MAP show is a striking snapshot of regional art by Glenn McNatt, The Sun, May 5, 2005
Residents In? Just Looking: The 19th Annual Critics’ Picks Exhibition by J. Bowers,
Baltimore City Paper, April 27, 2005
Jo Smail by Laurie Delk, The New Orleans Art Review, January/February 2005
2004 Pink Freud by J. Bowers. Baltimore City Paper, September 29, 2004
2003 Artistic Give and Take by Linell Smith, Baltimore Sun, December 18, 2003
2000 Expo Franco-Americaine au Musee du Chateau, Review, Quest-France July 5, 2000
1999 Chance and Necessity, Review by Adam J. Lerner, Art Papers, March, April 1999
1998 Jo Smail at Rockville Art Place, by Joe Shannon, Art in America, June 1998
1997 The Artist as Lobbyist, Review by Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post, December 11, 1997
Jo Smail at Rockville Arts Place, Review by Ken Oda, KOAN Art Newsletter, Washington, DC,
November 1997
Artist’s Collect the Darndest Things, Review by John Dorsey, Baltimore Sun, November 25, 1997
The Colors of War and Peace at Rockville Arts Place, Review by Nancy Ungar, Montgomery
Gazette, October 31, 1997
Not So Simple, by Annie Gawlak, October 1997
Artist as Collector, by Helen Glazer and Bill Schmidt, October 1997
Artistic Rebirth in Shades of Pink, Article by Holly Selby, Baltimore Sun, April 13, 1997
Out of the Ashes, by Helen Glazer, April 1997
1994 New Realities, by Carl Hazlewood. Review, Cover, October 1994
Maryland Institute is Gratifying Surprise, Review by Adrienne Redd, The Morning Call, PA,
July 10, 1994
Garden of Art, Review by John Dorsey, Baltimore Sun, May 25, 1994
Review by Mike Giulano, City Paper, May 18, 1994
1991 Enigmatic Art Show Requires Deep Thought, Review by John Dorsey, Baltimore Sun, January 7, 1991
Review by Mike Giuliano, Baltimore Evening Sun, February 7, 1991
1985 Jo Smail, illustration and interview by Hillary Prendini and Glynnis Underhill, Style Magazine,
March 1985
1984 A Little Artistic Courage, Review by John Dewar, Johannesburg Star, August 8, 1984
Jo Smail, Interview by Franka Severin, Johannesburg Art Foundation News Letter, July 1984
Four Painters at National Gallery, by Benita Munitz, Cape Times, May 24, 1984
Jo’burg Artists on Show, by Eldred Green, Cape Argus, May 14, 1984
1981 How to go about Buying Local Art, by Sharon Levin, Style Magazine, p 97, 98, 101, October 1981
A Painter who Knows her Own Mind, by Joyce Ozynski, Rand Daily Mail, March 24, 1981
Jo Smail, by Terence Maloon, Essay written for Solo show at Goodman Gallery
1978 Fighting Gloom at Wits, by Joyce Ozynski, Express, November 5, 1978
LECTURES
2015 Jo Smail on Pietro Perugino, Contribution to Blog, www.paintersonpaintings.com
2011 Jo Smail, Post Baccalaureate, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2009 Jo Smail, American University, Washington, DC
From Joseph Beuys to Goya: The Arch of My Life in Art Hoffberger School, Maryland Institute
College of Art, Baltimore, MD
From Joseph Beuys to Goya: The Arch of My Life in Art Post Baccalaureate, Maryland Institute
College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2007 Jo Smail, University of Maryland, College Park
2002 Art and Autobiography, Shimizu, Japan