Allen Smutylo

For the past 40 years, Smutylo’s work has been based on extensive travels to some of the Earth’s most remote places. This includes Central Asia where, over an eight-year period, he depicted the extraordinary life of the nomads of Changthang in Ladakh, and the Tibetan Buddhist lamas in their remote mountain-top monasteries in the Central Himalaya.

Previous to that he made over 20 sea kayaking and backpacking expeditions into the Canadian High Arctic and Greenland. The Amazon, the South Pacific, Rajasthan, the Ganges River, Antarctica, Central America and Patagonia also have been the source and inspiration for his etchings, and paintings in oil, watercolour and mixed media.

His latest work is derived from two trips to Western Mongolia where he lived with various nomadic eagle hunting families – documenting the only remaining culture in the world that still hunts their prey on horseback using huge Golden Eagles. Smutylo’s images usually depict aspects of a trip’s specific experiences – these might include geophysical elements, land and marine biology, and figurative images portraying cultural life as well as the imprint of previous lives.

These ideas are often juxtaposed with elements of collage, conveying a ‘land memory’ or a mythology of place. As an accomplished writer, Smutylo has complimented his artwork by authoring three books about his adventures – each of which have been listed for either national or international awards.

The Globe and Mail called his work and his writing “… a profound and poignant meditation on the connection between landscape and culture. …required reading.” June 2, 2007. Smutylo’s artwork and writing depicts and describes an unpasteurized environment that are rarely seen, yet these wild environments that he experiences continues to sustain people that chose to call such places home.

Allen Smutylo’s artwork is included in over 300 corporate and public collections. His work has been exhibited in dozens of solo shows and countless group shows nationally and internationally. He has won numerous awards including Graphex and the prestigious Sapparo International Print Biennial in Japan. His adventures and art were featured in RadioCanada’s film The Last Frontier. Allen Smutylo resides in Big Bay, Ontario.