Drawings from the 60’s to the Present
January 26, 2006- March 4, 2006
520 W 21st St
Kustera Tilton Gallery is pleased to present
Mimi Smith: Drawings from the 60's to the Present, from January 26h until March 4th, 2006. From the early 1960's, Smith combined her non-ideological schooling at Rutgers under Fluxus artist, Robert Watts and sculptor, Robert Morris, with her life amongst a small, but influential coterie of other recent grads living in downtown New York, to make pieces out of her everyday experiences, imbuing them with subversive political and personal commentaries of her life as a woman. By using clothing as both the subject and form in her work, Smith is a pioneer of both the feminist and clothing art movements whose career has spanned over 4 decades.
The artist has always felt at home using unconventional materials to make work and considers drawing, and specifically the use of line and shape, an integral part of her working process. Thread, zippers, measuring tapes are added to the usual repetoire of graphite, ink and paper to define versions of everyday objects and clothing. A prime example of this is a seminal work from 1966, Basic Black. It is the first use of the knotted thread that would become a signature of Smith's work over the next 20 years. Basic Black is an outline of a dress complete with zipper and seams. It is a tongue and cheek comment of the urbane woman's necessity: the perfect "little black dress". Smith's depictions of a table, chair and window in knotted thread and dressmaker's measuring tape, present the viewer with a simple yet haunting apparition of objects that might otherwise be overlooked. By accentuating their measurement and constructing their outlines in knotted thread, one is faced with the tedium of the process and the obsessiveness of it's precision.
In the 1970's and 1980's, Smith's work became more overtly political and concerned with technology, in particular how information is translated to the public through television and computers. Her installation, House with Clouds from 1980, is composed of suspended drawings and multiple voice audio tracks. Here the artist confronts us with the deluge of televised information and misinformation, specifically related to the impact on the environment and people in their homes, from the use of pesticides, pollution and radiation. The drawings literally form a 10 foot high house as well as surrounding clouds for the viewer to read and ponder.
Throughout the 1990's and recently, Smith's return to clothing brings a more personal account of topical issues, from environmental disasters, life-threatening illnesses, and child sexual abuse. Her recent drawing series Timelines takes an article of clothing (shoes, undershirts, underpants) and depicts it throughout a woman's life, chronicling the aging process, the ultimate betrayal of the body.
Mimi Smith recently was the subject of a survey exhibition,
Mimi Smith: Selected Works 1965-1999 at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Her work has been shown at the ICA in Philadelphia, the Hayward Gallery in London, The Newark Museum, and The Museum of Modern Art in NY. This will be her third solo exhibition with Anna Kustera.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show| Location | map | | Gallery | AnnaKustera | | Address | 520 W 21st St, Ground floor
New York (Chelsea)
NY, 10011
United States | | Phone | 212-989-0082 | | Fax | 212-989-0456 | | Hours | Tue-Sat 11-6 | |
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