ART-PRESENTATION: Kiki Smith-Murmur

Kiki Smith has been known since the 1980s for her multidisciplinary practice relating to the human condition and the natural world. She uses a broad variety of materials to continuously expand and evolve a body of work that includes sculpture, printmaking, photography, drawing and textiles. Smith became known for her visceral, often disturbing artworks that depict the human body in detail, focusing on themes of women from mythology and folklore, or that reference her Catholic upbringing.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Pace Gallery Archive

Kiki Smith’s solo exhibition “Murmur” underscores the truly multidisciplinary approach to art-making that Smith has pursued throughout her career and encompasses etchings, cyanotypes, contact prints, and sculptural works in bronze, aluminum, and silver. Embracing the power of figurative art, Smith’s recent work continues to advance her investigation of both the resonances and dichotomies between the natural and spiritual worlds. Drawing together approximately 20 works made over the last three years, the exhibition marks Pace gallery’s eighth solo exhibition dedicated to the artist since she joined the gallery in 1994. The works span from the intimate to the large-scale, the delicate to the robust, and represent elements from the human, animal, and celestial worlds like: an eagle resting in pines, a woman’s bust seemingly molded into a chopped tree, a series of shooting stars, a cloudburst, bees, oak leaves, birds, a spiraling nebula, and more. Notable highlights include “Wave” a large-scale bronze sculpture, treated with a dark black patina, evoking the power of the ocean under the vibrancy of a night sky; and a nearly seven foot tall bronze sculpture, representing a woman’s face, surrounded by and infused with symbols of language and nature. The exhibition envelops the viewer, sculptural pieces are wall-mounted, hung from the ceiling, placed directly on the ground, and presented on plinths; works on paper are installed in gridded groupings across the gallery’s walls; and, the rear room is adorned with a large bronze fountain set on a woodland-inspired bed of stones. Running throughout the works in the exhibition are ideas of genesis, decay, rebirth, and the eternal cycles and ties between seasons, nature, and human life.

Info: Pace Gallery, 537 West 24th Street, New York, Duration: 1-30/3/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.pacegallery.com