I was in Savannah for a wedding this past weekend. Sunday morning, my husband and I were both walking down Barnard St., looking for a cafe for breakfast, when we both stopped in our tracks to stare at the two paintings displayed in the window of Chroma Gallery. We looked at each other, and walked inside to find out the name of the artist. Much to our surprise, we found out that he is an Atlanta artist named Cedric Smith. Not that either of us are Atlanta art mavens or anything, but we had never even heard of him. His work is amazing.

Smith was born in Philadelphia, raised in Thomaston, Ga, and settled in Atlanta. His vibrant works display African-Americans in traditional advertising themes; The works are funny, but with an underlying irony – Where are African-Americans in advertising? I adored every one on display.

Chroma also displayed two works Smith completed for the New York Historical Society. The paintings, part of a series called “Slave Ads,” depicted slaves for sale along with newsprint descriptions of the individuals for sale. These two works were much more serious, but still visually striking.

His work is for sale in many places online (just Google Cedric Smith), and I found some for sale at Atlanta’s Twinhouse Art Gallery. I also found a link to some of Smith’s photographs. When I got home, I knew I had to blog about this Atlanta gem of an artist. If you get a chance, by all means, check his stuff out.