Description

Founded in 1969, the gallery was originally a leading specialist of and the preeminent source for 19th century Dutch painting. Founder Leslie Smith coined the term “The Second Golden Age of Dutch Art” for the exhibition at Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem in 1986. After son David assumed control in 1990 the gallery began to shift its focus towards 20th Century Modern and Contemporary Art. Since 2007, when Gabriëlle Davidson became a fundamental part of the gallery, the focus has expanded even further to include Australian indigenous art. Reflecting these evolutions, the gallery moved to Amsterdam in 2007 and later adopted the name SmithDavidson Gallery. A second location was opened in Miami In 2016, after having exhibited at Art Miami fair for over a decade and in order to have a permanent presence in the city’s international art scene. Starting in this field in 2007 SmithDavidson Gallery has also become one of the leading galeries in the world of Australian indigenous art. This field is a specialty of David Smith and Gabrielle Davidson and they have, over the last decades, built an important private collection of the same genre. After first encountering this unique art movement during a trip to Australia in 2006 they started collecting and a year later Simon Levie, the former-director of the Rijksmuseum, opened their first Aboriginal Art exhibition in the new Amsterdam Gallery. Being a leading resource ever since, the gallery has presented publications and exhibitions including “Signs and Traces, Contemporary Aboriginal Art” in Poland and “ORIGINS, Australian Aboriginal Art from the SmithDavidson Collection”.

READ MORE