Kiki Smith - Galleria Raffaella Cortese

biography

Kiki Smith was born in 1954 in Nuremberg, Germany. She lives and works in New York.

Smith is a New York-based artist and a leading figure in the international art world. The human form, especially the female body, became central to her work in the 1980s. She began to focus on the themes of loss and death through her depiction of the body’s internal components, especially organs, cellular structures and the nervous system. The evacuation of these physiological components from the body presented anxieties surrounding the maternal body and the notion of the body as a receptacle for incorporeal components such as knowledge, belief and storytelling. By exposing its internal structures, Smith portrays the dichotomy between the psychological and physiological spheres of the body. In recent years, Smith’s work has evolved to incorporate animals, domestic objects and narrative tropes from classical mythology and folk tales. Her career, spanning more than three decades, is characterized by great experimentation with techniques and materials: she employs a wide-range of non-traditional materials ranging from hair and latex to beeswax and gold to a diverse body of media that includes painting, photography, bookmaking, sculpture, drawing, and printmaking.

Kiki Smith was born in 1954 in Nuremberg, Germany. She lives and works in New York.

Kiki Smith select solo exhibitions include: Kiki Smith: Free Fall, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul (2022); Kiki Smith: From the Creek, Albuquerque Museum, New Mexico (2022); Inner Bodies, Fondation Thalie, Brussels (2022); Kiki Smith. Hearing You with My Eyes, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne (2020); Kiki Smith, Monnaie de Paris, Paris (2019); Kiki Smith: Procession originated at the Haus der Kunst, Munich and traveled to the Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland and the Belvedere, Vienna (2018); Musée d’Art Moderne, Saint Etienne (2013); Brooklyn Museum, New York (2009); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2007); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2005); Museum of Modern Art in New York (2003).

Her work has been included in group exhibitions such as: Nian Nian - The Power and Agency of Animal Forms, Deji Art Museum of Jiangsu, Nanjing (2023); Feminine power: the divine to the demonic, The British Museum, London (2022); Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale that Society Has the Capacity to Destroy: Mare Nostrum, Venice Biennale, Complex of the Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Penitenti Fondamenta Cannaregio, Venice (2019); The Moon From Inner Worlds to Outer Space, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk and traveled to Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo (2019); Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body (1300–Now), The Met Breuer, New York (2018); The American Dream: Pop to the Present, British Museum, London and traveled to Fondation Custodia, Paris, France (2018).

Smith’s works are included in numerous prominent museum collections, such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Tate Gallery, London; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Her work has been included in five Venice Biennales (2019, 2017, 2009, 2005, 1993).

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gallery exhibitions

The Cat Himself Knows

february 17 – may 18, 2023

Via A. Stradella 4

Quest

november 30, 2017 – march 2, 2018

via a. stradella 4

By the Stream

september 26 – november 15, 2012

via a. stradella 7

Storage on View

april 2 – may 12, 2012

via a. stradella 1

Untitled

november 27, 2007 – january 30, 2008

via a. stradella 7

What is at Hand

november 30, 2006 – january 26, 2007

via a. stradella 7

Cave Birds

march 3 – april 30, 2004

via a. stradella 7

Perturbamento

december 3, 2002 – february 28, 2003

via r. farneti, 10

Kiki Smith

april 3 – july 14, 2001

via r. farneti, 10

images

Guardiane, 2022

Permanent installation at ArtLine Milano

Photo: Alberto Fanelli

Guardiane, 2022 (detail)

Permanent installation at ArtLine Milano

Photo: Alberto Fanelli

Guardiane, 2022 (detail)

Permanent installation at ArtLine Milano

Photo: Alberto Fanelli

Send, 2016

Blackened bronze

36,2 × 91,4 × 30,5 cm overall with base; sculpture: 35,6 x 76,2 x 12,7 cm; pedestal: 101,6 x 91,4 x 30,5 cm

Surge, 2016

Blackened bronze

37,5 × 76,2 × 30,5 cm overall with base; sculpture: 36,8 x 56,5 x 7,6 cm; pedestal: 101,6 x 76,2 x 30,5

Bombalurina, 2022

Hand painted laser cut shina plywood

20,6 × 35,6 × 16,2 cm

Posie, 2022

Hand painted shina plywood

30,8 × 33,3 × 16,2 cm

Cousin, 2016

Hand painted laser cut shina plywood

42,9 × 35,9 × 16,2 cm

Heart in Hand, 2015

Hand painted laser cut shina plywood

31,1 × 28,3 × 16,2 cm

Empath 036, 2022

Watercolor and crayon on kitakata paper

44,5 × 50,8 cm

Empath 017, 2022

Watercolor and crayon on kitakata paper

44,5 × 50,8 cm

Empath 097, 2022

Watercolor and crayon on kitakata paper

44,5 × 50,8 cm

Empath 086, 2022

Watercolor and crayon on kitakata paper

44,5 × 50,8 cm

Capture, 2016

Crayon on handmade laid paper

40 × 59,1 cm; 48,8 × 67,5 cm framed

Haunted I, 2012

C-print

64,8 × 54 cm

Haunted II, 2012

C-print

64,8 × 54 cm

Haunted III, 2012

C-print

64,8 × 54 cm

Dwelling, 2012

Digital pigment print

50 × 55,8 cm

Untitled (Geneviève and the May Wolf), 2000

Chromogenic color print mounted to board

33,7 × 49,5 cm

Untitled (Geneviève and the May Wolf), 2000

Chromogenic color print mounted to board

33,3 × 49,5 cm

Untitled (Autumn), 2000

Chromogenic color print mounted to 2-ply board

33,7 × 48,9 cm

Untitled (Calling), 2000

Chromogenic color print

50,8 × 40,6 cm

Untitled (Silver Bones), 1996

chromogenic color print mounted to 2-ply board

50,8 × 76,2 cm

public exhibitions

MTA Arts & Design

Grand Central Madison

New York City

Permanent installation

Photo: Anthony Verde