Shinique Smith 

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Shinique Smith is a painter and sculptor known for her monumental abstractions of calligraphy textiles and collage. Smith’s personal histories and belongings intertwine with thoughts of the vast nature of ‘things’ that we consume and discard and how objects resonate on an intimate and social scale. Over the last twenty years, Smith has gleaned visual poetry from vintage clothing and explored concepts of ritual through tying, writing and gestures inspired by her travels and early graffiti roots in Baltimore. Through her process, she builds a complex material vocabulary that deftly interweaves brushstrokes, private narratives and symbolism for the viewer to divine and intuit. Smith’s practice operates at the convergence of consumption, displacement and spiritual sanctuary, revealing connections across space, time, and place to suggest the possibility of constructing worlds renewed by hopeful delight.

Born in Baltimore, MD, currently residing in Los Angeles, California, Smith’s art works have been exhibited by and are in the permanent collections of institutions such as, Baltimore Museum of Art, The Barnes Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Bronx Museum, Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans; Denver Art Museum, The Frist Center for Visual Arts, Kemper Museum, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Minneapolis Art Institute, MOCA Jacksonville, MOCA North Miami, MOMA PS1, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, The New Museum, The Studio Museum of Harlem and The Whitney Museum among others.