KIKI SMITH

The work of Kiki Smith emerged in the 1990s as one of the most unusual expressions of art produced by strong female artists. Without any preconceived notions, exploring the worlds of tales and legends, the mysteries and structures of human and animal bodies, and their relationships, Kiki Smith creates works of art where the apparent innocence and delicate brutality are a source of dreams, interrogations and fascination. The artist combines drawing and engraving, photography and collage, alternates between bronze and porcelain, thoughtful self-portraits and mysterious effigies, with a great economy of colour, most often using just black and white.

This new exhibition is organised around a series of small sculptures in bronze as well as drawings of birds. These animals, described by the artist as “mediums” are often at the heart of her work. These are the creatures that appeared in the backyard of her house on the Lower East Side of New York, or in the birch woods of the countryside where she now lives, to the north of the city.

Kiki Smith, an American artist born in 1954 in Nuremberg, lives and works in New York. Her work appears in the collections of the world’s leading museums and in recent years has been the subject of important retrospectives. Notably at the MOMA, New York, at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, at the Kunsthalle in Nuremberg, the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, at the Whitney Museum, New York, the Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld, the Fondation Miro, Barcelona and the Seattle Museum. This year, she is taking part in Viva Arte Viva, the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale, designed by Christine Macel. A retrospective is being prepared at the Haus der Kunst in Munich.