For Nyugen Smith \u201998, the pursuit of art as a career has been as much about persistence as talent. Today, the fine arts major is well-established as an interdisciplinary artist. He\u2019s a recent M.F.A. graduate of the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was awarded a full merit scholarship. He has held scores of shows \u2014 including a recent solo exhibition at Seton Hall\u2019s Walsh Gallery.<\/p>\n
Moreover, Smith recently received one of just nine annual Leonore Annenberg Fellowships \u2014 a total of $100,000 over two years, which he\u2019ll use to do field research in the Caribbean \u201con the impacts of colonialism and post-colonialism on the African Diaspora.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, his success hasn\u2019t come without setbacks, and his journey to becoming an artist began with a difficult choice: to switch his major from political science to fine arts in his junior year. When he told his mother, Smith recalls, \u201cShe looked at me and said, \u2018Nyugen, that is a hard life.\u2019\u201d His response: \u201cI know this is what I want to do. I\u2019ll make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nearly 20 years since then have brought challenges, such as initially being turned down at every graduate art school he applied to, and the need for patience as he perfected his craft while teaching art at St. Peter\u2019s Preparatory School in Jersey City, N.J.<\/p>\n
Now, the Annenberg fellowship gives Smith the economic freedom to conduct \u201cself-study to discover my West Indian heritage and various histories of the Caribbean\u201d over the coming two years. He heads in February to Trinidad, his mother\u2019s birthplace, to study the island\u2019s carnival tradition and learn to participate in the costume-making tradition, which will, no doubt, influence his performance art. In April, he\u2019ll go to Martinique, a former French colony, and then travel to Barbados, Haiti and Jamaica. He\u2019ll bring no strong preconceptions, he says, but will let his impressions and understanding \u201cevolve once I get there and begin to spend time with the people and experience the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
A painter, sculptor, video maker and performance artist, Smith says his first artistic effort was drawing stick figures when he was 6. Seeing the result, his uncle deftly sketched a man standing in profile and said, \u201c\u2019Go draw this.\u2019\u201d Smith practiced over and over, and then began to depict it in full face and, eventually, with the body in motion. His perseverance paid off, and when he got to Seton Hall years later, he pushed to stage the University\u2019s first solo student art show.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never took \u2018no\u2019 for an answer,\u201d he explains. And now, that firm resolve has finally paid off.<\/p>\n
By Bob Gilbert<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nyugen Smith was awarded the prestigious Leonore Annenberg Fellowship last April.<\/p>\n