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Yasmin Smith

YASMIN SMITH

Elemental Life Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | MCA 3 October 2025–8 June 2026 Sydney
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Press Release

Yasmin Smith (b. 1984, Sydney) creates ambitious sculptural installations working with the medium of ceramics. The development of her works involves extensive field research, community collaboration and technical experimentation. Key to Smith’s practice is her analysis and burning of mineral and plant materials to create glazes for her ceramic forms. These glazes bear unique chemical traces that, through her work, articulate the history, ecology and geology of different environments.

Yasmin Smith: Elemental Life is the artist’s most significant solo exhibition to date. It features the major wall-based installation Seine River Basin, 2019, commissioned by Centre Pompidou, Paris, and acquired for the MCA Collection in 2020. The installation is presented alongside new and recent works linked by their investigations of waterways, river systems and deep geological time.

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Installation Views

Exhibition view: Yasmin Smith, Elemental Life, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | MCA, Sydney (3–8 June 2026). Courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | MCA.
Exhibition view: Yasmin Smith, Elemental Life, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | MCA, Sydney (3–8 June 2026). Courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | MCA.
Exhibition view: Yasmin Smith, Elemental Life, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | MCA, Sydney (3–8 June 2026). Courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | MCA.
Exhibition view: Yasmin Smith, Elemental Life, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | MCA, Sydney (3–8 June 2026). Courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | MCA.
Exhibition view: Yasmin Smith, Elemental Life, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | MCA, Sydney (3–8 June 2026). Courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | MCA.
About the Artist

Yasmin Smith works within the parameters of ceramics, creating site-specific installations driven by extensive research. Merging aspects of art, archaeology and science, she examines the processes and chemical composition of glazes made from material found on site to reveal the history, ecology, geology and culture of a place.

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About the Gallery

Located on one of the world’s most spectacular sites on the edge of Sydney Harbour, the Museum of Contemporary Art opened its doors to the public in November 1991. Established through a bequest by Australian expatriate artist John Power (1881-1943), who left his personal fortune to the University of Sydney to inform and educate Australians about international contemporary visual art, the MCA is dedicated to exhibiting, collecting and interpreting contemporary art.

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Address
140 George Street
The Rocks
Sydney
Australia
Opening Hours
Monday – Wednesday
10am – 5pm

Thursday
10am – 9pm

Friday – Sunday
10am – 5pm
(1)
Sydney 140 George Street, The Rocks
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia MCA contemporary art institution in Sydney Australia
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | MCA
140 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney, Australia
+61 2 9245 2400
http://www.mca.com.au

Opening hours
Monday – Wednesday
10am – 5pm

Thursday
10am – 9pm

Friday – Sunday
10am – 5pm
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