Kiki Smith “Murmur”

Kiki Smith “Murmur”

Pace Gallery (537 W 24th St.)

This event has ended.

Pace Gallery presents an exhibition of new works by Kiki Smith. Encompassing etchings, cyanotypes, contact prints, and sculptural works in bronze, aluminum, and silver, the exhibition underscores the truly multidisciplinary approach to art-making that Smith has pursued throughout her career. Embracing the power of figurative art, Smith’s recent work continues to advance her investigation of both the resonances and dichotomies between the natural and spiritual worlds. Kiki Smith: Murmur will be on view from March 1 to 30, 2019 at 537 West 24th Street, with an opening reception for the artist held on Thursday, February 28 from 6 – 8 pm. A full color catalogue will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.

Drawing together approximately 20 works made over the last three years, Murmur marks the gallery’s eighth solo exhibition dedicated to the artist since she joined the gallery in 1994. The pieces span from the intimate to the large- scale, the delicate to the robust, and represent elements from the human, animal, and celestial worlds—an eagle resting in pines, a woman’s bust seemingly molded into a chopped tree, a series of shooting stars, a cloudburst, bees, oak leaves, birds, a spiraling nebula, and more. Notable highlights include Wave—a large-scale bronze sculpture, treated with a dark black patina, evoking the power of the ocean under the vibrancy of a night sky; and a nearly seven foot tall bronze sculpture, representing a woman’s face, surrounded by and infused with symbols of language and nature.

The exhibition envelops the viewer—sculptural pieces will be wall-mounted, hung from the ceiling, placed directly on the ground, and presented on plinths; works on paper will be installed in gridded groupings across the gallery’s walls; and, the rear room will be adorned with a large bronze fountain set on a woodland-inspired bed of stones. Running throughout the works in the exhibition are ideas of genesis, decay, rebirth, and the eternal cycles and ties between seasons, nature, and human life.

This year, Smith will be the subject of several major museum exhibitions worldwide. Originally organized by Haus der Kunst, the retrospective exhibition Procession will be presented at the Sara Hilden Art Museum, Finland, from February 8 – May 12, 2019, and at the Belvedere Museum, Vienna, Austria, from June 6 – September 15, 2019. An exhibition of Smith’s prints will be presented at Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, from February 14 – May 26, 2019; and she will be the subject of a solo-exhibition, What I Saw on the Road, at the Uffizi Gallery, Palazzo Pitti from February 15 – June 2, 2019.

Kiki Smith (American, b. 1954, Nuremberg, Germany) is a multidisciplinary artist known for her work relating to the human condition and the natural world. Since the 1980s, she has used a broad variety of materials to continuously expand and evolve an artistic practice that includes sculpture, printmaking, photography, drawing and textiles. An icon of figurative art, Smith is one of the most enduring creators of post-feminist imagery.

Smith has been the subject of major exhibitions worldwide, including over twenty-five solo museum shows. Her work has been featured at five Venice Biennales, most recently at the 2017 edition Viva Arte Viva. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2017 was awarded the title of Honorary Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Previously, Smith was recognized in 2006 by TIME Magazine as one of the “TIME 100: The People Who Shape Our World.” Other awards include the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture in 2000; the 2009 Edward MacDowell Medal; the 2010 Nelson A. Rockefeller Award, Purchase College School of the Arts; the 2013 U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts, conferred by Hillary Clinton; and the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center, among others.

Smith lives and works in New York City and the Hudson Valley, and is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and New York University.

Media

• Sculpture
• Installation

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