SHINIQUE SMITH, Visual Artist

is known for her monumental fabric sculptures and abstract paintings of calligraphy and collage. Inspired by her cultured childhood experiences, Smith has gleaned visual poetry from clothing and explored concepts of ritual using breath, bunding and calligraphy 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. Smith’s personal histories and belongings intertwine with thoughts of the vast nature of ‘things’ that we consume and discard and how these objects resonate on intimate and social scales.

Smith (b. 1971, Baltimore) attended the famed Baltimore School for the Arts for high school, Maryland Institute College of Art, obtaining a BFA in 1992 and MFA in 2003. She also received her Master of Arts in Teaching from Tufts University and the Museum School in 2000. Notable solo exhibitions include the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas (2022); USB Art Collection, NY (2019); Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art, Harlem, NY (2017); The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (2015); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (2013); SCAD Museum, Atlanta, GA (2011); Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Fl (2010); and the Studio Museum in Harlem, Harlem, NY (2009). Her work has gained attention through her participation in celebrated biennials and group exhibitions including the 13th Biennial 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. Notable group shows include the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Pérez Art Museum Miami,; Smart Museum of Art, Illinois; Museum of the African Diaspora, Calif.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C; and the Newark Museum. She has also created several landmark public works for NY Metro Arts in Transit, Chicago Transit Authority, Wabash Arts Corridor, USCF Medical Center at Mission Bay, and a monumental mosaic for the Los Angeles Metro Arts.

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, Guggenheim Museum; Frist Art Museum; Minneapolis Art Institute; MOMA PS1; Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal; National Portrait Gallery, D.C.; the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art; the Newark Museum; and the Whitney Museum. She is the recipient of several awards and prizes including the American Academy of Arts & Letters Purchase Prize, (2022); Anonymous Was a Woman Artist Award (2016); Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2013); MICA Alumni Medal of Honor (2012); Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship (2008); and the Aljira Center for Contemporary Arts Fellowship (2005). Smith currently lives and works in Los Angeles.