Highland Park, IL
About Doug Smithenry:
Smithenry explores the notion that while we engage in a search for significance online, most of us have to live with the stark fact that neither fame nor notoriety will ever find us. His work asks us to consider how our technology consumes and distracts us from our off-line pursuits that ultimately make us the "somebodies" we are.
Smithenry’s traveling exhibition, Coming Out Online, an installation of paintings that document the online testimonials of queer teens, garnered an article in the Chicago Tribune, was discussed on Chicago Public Radio’s news magazine 848 and continues to tour in various academic venues. His work has been reproduced in Harper's Magazine and The Common Review. He was a featured artist during Chicago Artist’s Month in 2009 and received an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Grant Recipient in 2005
Having grown up on a dairy farm in South-Central Illinois, Smithenry now resides in Highland Park, Illinois, with his husband and their two children.
Selected exhibitions
- Governor's State University - Chicago, IL, 2015
- Packer Schopf Gallery - Chicago, IL, 2011
- Center on Halsted - Chicago, IL , 2009
- Viveza Gallery - Seattle, WA, 2006
- Kansas City Artist's Coalition - Kansas, MO, 2003
Education
- Washington University in St. Louis, MFA - St. Louis, MO,1991
- University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, BFA - Champaign, IL,1989
- Pratt Institute, - Brooklyn, NY,1986
Press Accolades
- Chicago Tribune - June 5, 2009
- WBEZ Chicago Public Radio - June 10, 2009
- Harper's - May 2003