Kiki Smith
b. 1954, Nuremberg, Germany
Lives in New York
venue
Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans
900 Camp Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Monday, 11 AM–5 PM
Tuesday, closed
Wednesday–Sunday, 11 AM–5 PM
neighborhood
Downtown/Central Business District (CBD)
About the project
Kiki Smith is drawn to the vast and spectacular complexities of the cosmos. Her recent prints and sculptures have increasingly conveyed her fascination with the spiritual and physical forces of the natural world, and the ever-shifting role of humans within it. The large-scale Sungrazer sculptures hung on the wall, for instance, give form to the sparkling brilliance and motion of stars, rendering comets in bronze with multicolored patinas. The nearby small sculptures in silver, bronze, and aluminum also imagine celestial forms, some in more literal, observational ways, while others seem to be imbued with imaginative, folkloric qualities.
Smith has been similarly preoccupied with meteorological phenomena: Force III is part of a new series of cyanotype prints that depict the whirling movement of hurricane patterns. Set against bright-blue backdrops, the delicate patterns create constellations of their own, at once revealing the stirring beauty and tremendous force of nature.
about the artist
Kiki Smith is a German-American artist who studied for a time at the Hartford Art School in Connecticut before moving to New York, where she has been based for forty years. Her early work treats such subjects as the AIDS epidemic and gender. More recently, she has turned her attention toward the relationship of the human condition to nature, specifically feminine subjects. Her practice includes the use of tattoo, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, textiles, and photography to create figural representations that explore themes of mortality, sexuality, and the human body and bodily fluids. Smith has been featured three times in the Whitney Biennial, New York, and five times in the Venice Biennale. Among other venues, her work has been shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Her print work is found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Smith has received numerous awards and honors for her work, such as the International Sculpture Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2016) and the US Department of State’s Medal of Arts (2012). She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Kiki Smith, 2021. Installation view: Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow, 2021–22. Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans. Courtesy Prospect New Orleans. Photo: Alex Marks