Kiki Smith
Artist Kiki Smith (1954–) grew up in New Jersey, crossing the Hudson River to New York City in the late 1970s. She is the daughter of the American sculptor Tony Smith (1912–1980), who is associated with the Minimalism movement. Since the 1990s, Smith has been interested in depicting nature in her work, often in the form of finely designed etchings, woodcuts, photographs, and lithographs, among other media. Birds have a symbolic resonance for the artist and are linked to the soul, “with associations ranging from the Holy Spirit to the fragility of the environment”; the use of white birds recalls the image of the dove in Catholic art and are consistent with a strain of religiosity that runs through her oeuvre.
The Kitchen in New York hosted Smith’s first solo exhibition in 1982. Major solo shows have since been organized by the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva, Switzerland (1990); Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts (1992); Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, United Kingdom (1995); the Museum of Modern Art in New York City (2003); and Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota (2006). Smith lives and works in New York City.
