A Langley builder turned artist puts used lumber on the wall at TWU
Cody Smith, a Langley artist who spent most of his working life in construction, has filled Trinity Western University's SAMC Gallery with pieces made from used building materials; Between Tool and Material is free to see until December 16, with an artist talk on November 26.
The plywood scraps in Cody Smith’s new show have been somewhere before. Offcuts, old veneer, painted boards: the kind of material that usually ends up in a jobsite bin is cut into triangles and curves and fitted back together on big panels, one of them titled The Dead Sea.
Smith is a Langley-based artist who worked in construction for most of his adult life before turning to art full time. His solo exhibition, Between Tool and Material, opened November 7 at Trinity Western University’s SAMC Gallery and runs until December 16. It’s free, and you don’t need to be a student to walk in.
“Art gives me clearer vision,” Smith told the Langley Advance Times. He describes his role as a go-between for the tool and the material, calls Langley a “very hardworking blue-collar community,” and says the work comes from “your average working-class Canadian with a family.”
His training is the formal kind: a BFA from OCAD University in Toronto and an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, according to TWU. He was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, in 1987.
Seeing it
The SAMC Gallery isn’t a separate building. It’s inside the Norma Marion Alloway Library on TWU’s Langley campus, beside the Learning Commons. TWU lists these gallery hours:
- Monday to Thursday, 7:45 am to 11 pm
- Friday, 7:45 am to 6 pm
- Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm
- Sunday, 1:30 to 5 pm
The library sets the hours, so check its hours page closer to exam season and the holidays, when they change.
Two free events go with the show:
- Opening reception and artist talk: Thursday, November 26, 7 to 8:30 pm, in the gallery.
- Art coffee break: Tuesday, December 1, 11:30 am to noon, a short drop-in.
The SAMC Gallery is run by TWU’s School of the Arts, Media and Culture. Other free walls are on our list of art galleries in Langley, and our Trinity Western University page covers parking and what else on campus is open to the public.