Born on January 18, 1954, in Nuremberg, Germany and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, Kiki Smith studied at the Hartford Art School in Connecticut from 1974 – 1976. Recognized as a “leading figure among artists addressing the philosophical, social, and spiritual aspects of human nature,” Kiki Smith’s career has incorporated sculpture, printmaking, installation, and drawing. Her body of work has covered an equally diverse array of subjects, from the human body and domesticity, to classical mythology and folk tales. Life, death, and resurrection are leitmotifs in much of Smith’s work, and she is widely credited for treating the female form with extraordinary honesty and vulnerability.”
The Kitchen in New York hosted Smith’s first solo exhibition in 1982. She has exhibited annually from 1982 at the Fawbush Gallery in New York. In 1990, Smith received significant acclaim for her exhibition in the Projects Room at the Museum of Modern Art. “By manipulating everyday materials such as glass, ceramic, fabric and paper, Smith’s work examined the dichotomy between the psychological and physiological power of the body.”
Smith has also had major solo showings at the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva (1990), Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts (1992), Whitechapel Art Gallery in London (1995), Museum of Modern Art in New York (2003), and Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (2006).
In 2009 Smith was awarded the Brooklyn Museum Women In The Arts Award. She currently lives and works in New York.
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Sources: Art Knowledge News, DAF, PBS