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| Shinique Smith, Gnosis, 2013, Ink, fabric and acrylic on wood panel, 48 x 48 x 5 inches. Image via jamescohan.com. |
Bold As
Love
February
15, 2013 – March 24, 2013
Press
Preview: Friday, Feb 15, 10:00AM
Opening
Reception: Friday, Feb 15, 6-8PM
Artist
Talk: Saturday, Feb 16, 12:30-1:30PM
533 West 26th Street
New York, NY
James Cohan Gallery is
pleased to announce the opening of Bold as Love, an exhibition of
new works by SHINIQUE SMITH on view February
15th through March 24th. This is the artist’s debut exhibition at James Cohan
Gallery.
In Paul D. Miller’s (aka DJ Spooky) catalogue
essay for the artist’s 2010 solo exhibition at MoCA North Miami, he describes
Shinique Smith’s unique ability to synthesize media into “cubes of
consciousness rendered into oblique strategies of envisioning, making the
anonymous spaces of urban life become illuminated manuscripts of the here and
now.”
Shinique Smith is inspired by
the vast vocabulary of things we consume and discard. Examining the ways in
which these objects resonate on a personal and social scale, Smith pursues the
graceful and spiritual qualities of the written word and the everyday. In this
new body of work, a free flow between paintings and sculptures ruminates on the
interplay of chaos and restraint, balance and connection, and what is revealed
and concealed.
In the exhibition Bold
as Love, installations in each of the three gallery spaces trace a distinct
phase of a conceptual journey. A central energizing motif throughout is the
mandala, a form chosen for its geometry, both sacred and mathematical, and as a
tool for fusing the visceral with the cerebral. The front gallery serves as a
place of transition, an antechamber where calm and intensity harmonize in denim
painted with bleach and in relief. Paintings and sculptures in the main gallery
are installed in pairs and larger groupings. The potential energy bound within
Smith’s hanging sculptures finds its kinetic expression in the gestural texts
of her canvases. Ratios of the human body are referenced by impressions of the
artist’s form both on large-scale paintings and in sculptures, stuffed and
created from her own dresses. The exhibition culminates in the back gallery
with an immersive environment featuring clustered hanging sculptures whose
tethers drape to the floor in spiraling script.
As artist Kehinde Wiley
observes, “The work of Shinique Smith navigates the leading edge of the written
word. Her installations of extremely mixed visual signifiers marry literature,
Islamic architecture, and hip hop music to investigate and expound the
narrative capabilities of the language.”
UPCOMING in 2013, Shinique
Smith has been commissioned by NEW YORK CITY’S MTA ARTS FOR TRANSIT to
create a permanent public work at the new Mother Clara Hale Bus Depot in Harlem
(Lenox Ave and 146th Street). This extensive project features a large-scale
mosaic across the façade and laminated glass windows throughout overall
measuring 6,672 square feet of artwork. Currently on view Shinique Smith: Firsthand,
a collaboration with LACMA and
the Charles White Elementary School including Smith’s new work based on her
experience within the school and community, art produced by students, and
objects the artist selected from LACMA’s Costume and Textile collection. Also
in 2013, BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM OF
ART in Alabama has commissioned Smith to create a large-scale
sculptural installation for Etched in Collective commemorative
exhibition for the 50th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing,
opening August 18, curated by Jeffreen Hayes. A solo exhibition will be mounted
at the MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS,
BOSTON from October 2014 to March 2015, curated by Jen
Mergel.
SHINIQUE SMITH lives and
works in Hudson, NY. Past solo exhibitions include MoCA, North Miami, Madison
MCA, Studio Museum in Harlem, and Boulder MCA. The artist’s work is included in
the collections of Brooklyn Museum, Denver Art Museum, Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, and Whitney Museum of American Art,
amongst others. She was a fellow of Joan Mitchell Foundation in 2008 and
Skowhegan School in 2003.
For further information, please contact Jane Cohan at jane@jamescohan.com or
by telephone at 212.714.9500.
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