Photo credit: Courtesy of the artist
Ep.221 Shinique Smith. Known for her monumental fabric sculptures and abstract paintings of calligraphy and collage, Smith’s personal histories and belongings intertwine with thoughts of the vast nature of ‘things’ that we consume, cherish, gift, and discard and how these objects resonate on intimate and social scales. Over the last twenty years, Smith has gleaned visual poetry from textiles and explored concepts of ritual using breath, bunding and mark-making as tools toward abstraction. Her layered works range from palm-sized bundled microcosms to monolithic bales to massive chaotic paintings that contain vibrant and carefully collected mementos from her life. Smith’s practice operates at the convergence of consumption and spiritual sanctuary, balancing forces and revealing connections across space and time, race, gender, and place to suggest the possibility of new worlds.
Born in Baltimore, MD, currently residing in Los Angeles, California, Smith has received awards and prizes from Joan Mitchell, the Tiffany Foundation, Anonymous Was a Woman and the American Academy of Arts and Letters among others. Her work has gained attention through her participation in celebrated biennials and group exhibitions including the 13th Bienal de Cuenca and 8th Busan Biennale; Frequency at the Studio Museum in Harlem, 30 Americans organized by the Rubell Family Collection, UnMonumental at the New Museum and Hauser + Wirth LA’s Revolution in the Making. Smith’s work has also been exhibited and collected by other prestigious institutions such as the Baltimore Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum of Art; California African American Museum, Denver Art Museum, the Frist, Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Minneapolis Art Institute, MOMA PS1, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, SCAD, the Ringling Museum of Art, the Whitney and the Guggenheim.
Artist https://www.shiniquesmith.com/
moniquemeloche https://www.moniquemeloche.com/artists/207-shinique-smith/biography/
https://www.moniquemeloche.com/exhibitions/218-collage-culture/press_release_text/
The Phillips Collection https://www.phillipscollection.org/event/2024-07-06-multiplicity
The Ringling Museum https://www.ringling.org/event/shinique-smith-parade/
SRQ https://www.srqmagazine.com/srq-daily/2023-12-01/23073_The-Ringling-Presents-Shinique-Smith-Parade
Centure for Maine Contemporary Art https://cmcanow.org/event/shinique-smith-continuous-poem/
Newfields https://discovernewfields.org/Shinique-Smith-Torque
Guggenheim https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/by-way-of-material-and-motion-in-the-guggenheim-collection
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art https://www.kemperart.org/program/artist-talk-shinique-smith
Products | For Freedoms https://checkout.forfreedoms.com/products/by-the-light-2024
ICASF https://www.icasf.org/exhibitions/16-the-poetics-of-dimensions
See Great Art https://www.seegreatart.art/shinique-smith-artworks-displayed-with-european-masterpieces-at-ringling-museum/
Visit Indy https://www.visitindy.com/event/shinique-smith-torque/158358/
Guild Hall https://www.guildhall.org/events/ring-the-alarm-a-conversation-with-shinique-smith-renee-cox/
AWARE https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/shinique-smith/
Flora Animalia https://floraanimalia.com/blogs/news/shinique-smith?srsltid=AfmBOorqjJTBqroKRSW96gcOjCXK374pQUKNseNnhQ1A0rZNtRrOdoaj
Mitumba Deity II, 2018/2023
Clothing, vintage textiles, ribbon and rope, turquoise and aventurine beads,
vintage pearls, blown glass and fabric garlands, and the Artist’s grandmother’s antique dresser
Image courtesy the Artist and The Ringling Museum
On view through January 5, 2025
Torque, 2024
Custom printed and hand-painted textiles, found hubcaps,
hula-hoops, ribbon, rope, yarn and sound Image
Courtesy the Artist and Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
On view through June 1, 2025
Breathing Room: Moon’marked Journey, 2022
Still from performative film piece
Image courtesy the Artist
And finally he was a flower in bloom, 2024
Acrylic, graphite, crayon, collage and fabric on canvas
72 x 48 x 2 inches
Image courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery
