SHINIQUE SMITH: TORQUE

@NEWFIELDS THRU JUNE 2025

This summer, guests will be welcomed into the Indianapolis Museum of Art by a newly commissioned piece from artist Shinique Smith. Smith’s multi-sensory installation will be suspended in the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion and will combine banners of printed and painted textiles, found objects, and the sounds of racing, speed and motion. Using her signature calligraphic and gestural style, this site-specific piece underscores Smith’s wonder at the depth and breadth of Indianapolis’s racing history, and the fashions and patterns surrounding speedways and pathways to freedom. Torque is inspired by the city’s central role in the world of motorsports while acknowledging the history of segregation in racing on the 100th anniversary of the Gold and Glory Sweepstakes at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. 

SHINIQUE SMITH: METAMORPH

Metamorph, 2024

moniquemeloche is pleased to present Shinique Smith: METAMORPH, the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Renowned for her monumental fabric sculptures and abstract paintings of calligraphy and collage, Smith’s wide-ranging practice operates at the convergence of consumption and spiritual sanctuary, balancing forces and revealing connections across space, time, race, gender and place to suggest the possibility of new worlds. Inspired by as the artist refers, her “magical childhood experiences” (from chanting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to tagging in a graffiti crew in Baltimore, to attending fashion shows in Paris and New York with her mother), Smith’s practice expresses the wonder, connections and ecstatic moments, that she as a Black woman, finds within textiles, keepsakes and sayings exchanged between her family, friends and travels.

Through layered and transformative processes, METAMORPH presents intersecting forces of personal history, influence and vibrant energy as seen through Smith’s keen and emphatic lens. Reflecting on her journey of growth, the works on view create a world for herself that she can revel in and share, foregrounding the universality of the human experience and our desire to find wonder in the everyday movements of life.

APRIL 6 - MAY 18, 2024

SHINIQUE SMITH: PARADE

SHINIQUE SMITH: PARADE ON VIEW THRU JAN 5, 2025

December 16, 2023 - January 5, 2025

This year-long, multi-gallery installation places the work of contemporary artist Shinique Smith (American, b. 1971) in direct dialogue with historic European art, a first in Smith’s career. Several of her large-scale sculptures, along with smaller works, will be displayed in the permanent collection galleries of the Museum of Art. Parade speaks to the European artistic tradition while also foregrounding notions of Black femininity and the history of the circus.

Shinique Smith: Parade is generously supported by the Ellin Family Art of Our Time Endowment Fund and the Ringling Museum General Development Fund. It is paid for in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax revenues and by the Florida Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture.

SHINIQUE SMITH | CONTINUOUS POEM

SOLO EXHIBITION AT CENTER FOR MAINE CONTEMPORARY ART

ARTIST TALK - WED JULY 5 AT 2PM

Shinique Smith’s monumental, 28-foot-wide artwork, Memories of my youth streak by on the 23, captures a nostalgic remembrance of youth and the formative experiences that permeate the artist’s practice. It evokes the sentiment of gazing from her bus window witnessing the blending of storefronts and row houses while catching glimpses of her own reflection as the bus zoomed along its daily route. The energetic brushstrokes parallel the movement of the bus, characterized by bold and expressive strokes that echo the gestural forms of action painting, graffiti, and calligraphy as the artist uses language as her vehicle toward mark making. Smith’s creative process is guided not only by verse and lyrics but also by the act of titling her works for the last five years, forming a continuous poem with each title serving as a line. This collection of works in this show, spanning from 2019 to 2022, before, during, and after quarantine, share a common thread of hand, palette, materials, and intention.

Together, these artworks and their titles form an ongoing free verse.

Memories of my youth streak by on the 23 - Quietly amid light and dust - The words pooled like raindrops in her hair - His last breath became a storm - And she wept miracles - Covering tears with flowers - Black marks - Inside the fading sun

FLAUNT MAGAZINE ISSUE 183

A TAP CARD TO THE FUTURE | EMBRACING SOUTH LA’S NEW CRENSHAW CORRIDOR K LINE VIA ART, COMMUNITY, AND A TOUCH OF FASHION

Left to right: D-LO wears ETRO coat and pants, GUIDI shoes, and HUBLOT watch. Sekayi wears ETRO top and pants, SANTONI shoes, and HUBLOT watch. Stevan wears ETRO top and pants and HUBLOT watch.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Station, Only Light, Only Love. Shinique Amie Smith. Courtesy LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority

HYPERALLERGIC - LA’s New Metro Line Opens With 14 Public Artworks →

Kenturah Davis, Mickalene Thomas, and Shinique Smith are among the artists who created work for the K Line, which connects historical centers of Black American life and culture in LA.

Shinique Smith, “Only Light, Only Love” at MLK Jr. Station (photo courtesy LA Metro)

LA METRO K LINE OPENING OCTOBER 7 at NOON →

Video: Shinique Smith on “Only Light, Only Love”

at future Martin Luther King Jr. Station

LA METRO K LINE OPENING OCTOBER 7 at NOON - More info here - https://kline.metro.net

In an upcoming Metro Art station artwork titled Only Light, Only Love, artist Shinique Smith uses the medium of glass mosaic to share the well-known and empowering words by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that state “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

On this day that is dedicated to love, and in honor of Black History Month, we’re debuting a new video that offers a peek into Shinique Smith’s design process and philosophy—as well as the artist’s hopes for the station artwork to inspire people in everyday life, as she was inspired to include the famous quote by Dr. King that puts love front and center.

“I used (the words of Dr. King) as a connective line in the composition that created a rhythm of movement and the heartbeat throughout the piece,” states Smith.

The artwork will be a prominent feature of the future Martin Luther King Jr. Station, part of the Crenshaw/LAX Line.

Learn more about the artwork here.

Learn more about the Crenshaw/LAX Art Program here.

EDITION - INTERVIEW

SHINIQUE SMITH: STARGAZERS

at The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art

This exhibition presents a new body of work by Shinique Smith, whose multidisciplinary practice includes painting, sculpture, video, photography, installation and performance. Exploring ideas of transformation and ritual through materials such as fabric, clothing, personal belongings, breath, bundling, collage and gesture, Smith has built a complex visual vocabulary that resonates on intimate and social scales. 

Smith’s Breathing Room: Moon Marked Journey will also debut—a new time-based work that evolved out of the artist’s 2018 performance at Open Spaces KC.

Artist talk and reception: May 5th, 2022 from 6 p.m. Artist lecture will be held online and in Hudson Auditorium with a reception following in the Nerman atrium (drinks and light bites).

WATCH the LIVESTREAM PRESENTATION →

Shinique Smith’s New Video

BREATHING ROOM

MOON’MARKED JOURNEY

Click to Watch Sunday’s Livestream Preview on Youtube for a Limited Time

BREATHING ROOM: MOON MARKED JOURNEY LIVE-STREAM FILM PREVIEW & PERFORMANCE

Join us on Sunday, January 30, 2022 at 1 pm Pacific/ 4pm Eastern !

for a special live-stream performance and preview of Shinique Smith's Breathing Room: Moon Marked Journey*, a film meditation on breath, Indigo, and blue as a color that has long inspired Smith’s art practice. 

The completed film will be debut at Smith’s forthcoming solo exhibition at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in spring 2022. Guests attending this January 30th virtual preview will get a sneak peek of what's to come at the Nerman Museum this spring! This online-only event will stream on YouTube.

Click here to RSVP today to receive access to the streaming link.

More about  Breathing Room: Moon Marked Journey

The original Breathing Room performance by Smith, presented for Open Spaces Kansas City (2018) and at the Baltimore Museum of Art (2020) has evolved into a new visual work. This new work is an homage to blue, one that has been slowly percolating since 2009, when she began to incorporate body prints within her work. With dozens of supporters, Smith successfully funded her Kickstarter campaign to help realize this new iteration of Breathing Room as a film.

“This new, evolved version of Breathing Room is about Indigo, blue, the body, my body as a black woman, and the effect that the blue can have on the body, on memory, and spirit. The film recognizes the amazing blue in every piece of life and the indomitable spirit of Black women. It brings together a sensual experience of fabric, color, breath and light, memory and movement, textiles sound and sculpture,” Smith on how Breathing Room has evolved from its first iteration.

The film is written and directed by Smith and features a cast of talented African American creators and yogis. The voices of poet Glenis Redmond and vocalist Georgia Anne Muldrow will bring a new level of sound to Smith’s film. Redmond will present a newly commissioned poem on the beaches and at former indigo plantations in South Carolina. Muldrow will perform improvised vocals within the Breathing Room ceremonial performance of cloth and breath. Throughout the film, body wrapping performed by dancer and choreographer Jessica Emmanuel and breathwork performed by yoga practitioner Sana Malik will link with imagery and locations that reference Smith’s adoration of Indigo and blue and how the color manifests in her calligraphy and textile-based artworks. 

“With roots in Ancient Peru, India, Japan, and Africa, Indigo was considered in many cultures to represent the path to the infinite and bring one closer to the sky, a color, and history that continues to inspire. Indigo was a significant cash crop alongside cotton during the slave trade and used as currency. The painful truth is realizing that hundreds of thousands of individual African lives were each traded for 2-3 measures of this beautiful blue cloth,” Smith on the significance of Indigo.

*Film in Progress

Shinique Smith: Grace Stands Beside →

Shinique Smith: Grace Stands Beside

On View at The Baltimore Museum of Art March 15 - August 9, 2020

Taking the form of a deity-like figure, Shinique Smith’s newest sculpture, Grace stands beside, is a monument to Grace—defined by the artist as “a complex state of being that Black people and others who have endured tragic prejudice have embodied to survive and to rise beyond.” Smith created the sculpture with Baltimore residents’ donated fabric and clothing after reflecting on her layered feelings and memories of sculptures past and present in Baltimore City, where she grew up and attended Maryland Institute College of Art.  The sculpture’s title, Grace stands beside, reclaims language from an inscription on the base of a Confederate monument that stood on Mount Royal Avenue until its removal in 2017. The inscription, “Glory stands beside our grief,” referenced the sculpture’s depiction of Glory as an angel holding a dying Confederate soldier while raising a laurel crown, or symbol of Victory.

Curated by Cecilia Wichmann, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art.

Shinique Smith at UBS Art Gallery- New York →

Transforming neglected materials into art

From 27 January–10 June 2020, the UBS Art Collection presents ‘Indelible Marks’ – a solo exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by Shinique Smith, held at the UBS Art Gallery at 1285 Avenue of the Americas, New York. The exhibition presents the artist’s newest series of works and draws inspiration from the vast nature of the things that we create, consume and discard.

Breathing Room: Bound & Loose

Swaths of deep blue fabric—dyed, bleached, and embedded with words and symbols by Shinique Smith—surround and envelop the artist (Baltimore, MD, b. 1971) during  Breathing Room: Bound and Loose. For the meditative performance, Smith rhythmically inhales and exhales while wrapping herself in the indigo fabric. On the significance of indigo, she explains: “With roots in Ancient Peru, India, Japan and Africa, Indigo was once used as currency and was also a significant cash crop alongside cotton and tobacco during the slave trade. Indigo was considered in many cultures to represent the path to the  infinite and bring one closer to the sky, a color and history that continues to inspire.”

Once the artist is bound beyond movement, Smith describes that she enters “a deep meditative state with the desire to release and transform a shared cultural experience of toil and bondage into a freed creative power for all who witness and participate as I am unraveled, and my bindings are loosened.” Smith seeks to expand her inner voice and commune with her ancestors through these actions and invites audience members to breathe in rhythm with her to create a shared tapestry of empowering sound.