About this episode

David Smalling discusses his painting practice and its exploration of cultural hierarchies and identity.

Ep.272 David Smalling (b. 1987, Kingston, Jamaica) lives and works in New York. He studied Mathematics at Yale University, where he also trained at the Yale School of Art, and holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Smalling’s painting practice examines the invisible architectures through which cultural hierarchies, inherited rituals, and social taboos shape identity. Working through the visual language of Mannerism, Dutch Golden Age still life, and Old Master painting, he approaches the panel as a diagnostic surface: a place where shame, desire, aspiration, and restraint are staged with theatrical precision. His meticulous compositions often unfold within domestic and ceremonial interiors, where silver platters, pearls, ribbons, brass instruments, mattresses, and other charged objects become symbols of belonging and control. These objects appear seductive at first, but gradually reveal systems of pressure: codes of class, gender, decorum, and performance that shape the body before the body itself appears. In Smalling’s paintings, the feast, the bedroom, and the still life become psychological arenas in which access to elite or aspirational spaces is granted only through subtle…

People in this episode

Host: Phyllis Hollis

Guest: David Smalling

Topics covered

• art
• identity
• cultural hierarchies
• Mannerism
• Dutch Golden Age
• psychological arenas
• vanitas painting

Keywords

• David Smalling
• art
• identity
• cultural hierarchies
• Mannerism
• vanitas painting
• psychological arenas
• still life

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Yale University, Yale School of Art, Harvard University

Places: Kingston, Jamaica

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