Artist
Smith
British, b. 1985
Smith is a British Romanticism artist. 1 work is cataloged here, principally at Cleveland Museum of Art. Smith was born in Paris.
Overview
Smith (stylized as SMITH; born 1985) is a French transdisciplinary artist-researcher. Smith experiments with and explores the links between contemporary humanity and its boundary figures – ghosts, mutants, hybrids – engaging his own body and that of his collaborators – writers, astronauts, shamans, engineers, designers, performers or composers – in indisciplinary projects. Disturbing genres, languages and disciplines, Smith proposes curious works, in the etymological sense of cura: curiosity and care for the world around us, the terrestrial and the celestial, the human and the non-human, the visible and the invisible, imagination and fiction. Thermal cameras, drones, neon lights, implantations of electronic chips and subcutaneous meteorites, atomic mutations or trance practices characterise his fluid work composed with technological and spiritual means that incorporate the dimensions of mystery and dream.
Early life and education
Born in 1985 in Paris, France. Smith has a degree in 2010 from the National School of Photography, Arles. Smith has also studied at the Paris-Sorbonne University (2007), and the Aalto University (2009) in Helsinki. He graduated from Le Fresnoy (National Studio of Contemporary Arts) in Tourcoing, France in 2012, and a PhD from UQAM in Montreal, Quebec in 2022.
Work
Smith's initial artistic medium was photography; later installations include a variety of media. His work, both plastic and theoretical, is now described as "indisciplinary". Smith has engaged in collaborations with scientific and philosophical research teams and labs - such as the French National Centre for Scientific Research in 2012, and the IRAP (Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie) in 2018. In the interactive installation "Cellulairement" (2012), a thermal capture device in the installation space was connected to an electronic chip implanted in Smith's body, allowing Smith to feel the presence of viewers. Many of Smith's early works explore questions of gender and personal identity. The idea of transition is a central element of his artistic practice. French photographer and photography specialist Arnaud Claass wrote about Smith's work, in the preface of Smith's first monographic book: "There is no mystery; Smith's approach to the visible, at once luminarist and dark, is valid as an image of the uncertainty of sexual roles. Questions of gender, a current in philosophy over the last twenty years or more, occupy an important place in the intellectual development of [Smith's] oeuvre.". Along with French curator Nadège Piton, Smith wrote the book "Transgalactic" in 2020 about queer & trans presences in contemporary photography, and curated the eponymous exhibition presented in March 2023 at La Filature, Mulhouse. His most recent projects are "Spectrographies" (2014), "TRAUM" (2015–18), "Saturnium" (2017) and "Desideration" (2019–2021). They were presented during cinema festivals in Europe, at the Centre Pompidou, and Théâtre de la Cité Internationale (Paris), at the CND (Pantin), at the Dance Museum (Rennes) and at the CCN-ICI (Montpellier). Smith's visual works were exhibited as solo shows at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie (Arles), at the Filles du Calvaire gallery and Palais de Tokyo (Paris), at the Photographic Museum of Helsinki (Finland), as well as several countries in Europe (Sweden, Luxembourg, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland), Asia (China, Cambodia, South Korea) and Latin America (Mexico, Chile, Uruguay). Smith is represented by Christophe Gaillard gallery in Paris. He is currently an associate artist at La Filature - Scène Nationale in Mulhouse, and laureate of the 2023 Villa Albertine in partnership with the French writer Marie NDiaye.
Solo exhibitions
2008–2009: galerie AnnexOne, galerie Dask, Copenhague 2009: Nuit Blanche, Chapelle de la maternité Sainte Croix, Metz, avec une performance de Sir Alice 2011–2015: Löyly, 4th festival Photo Phnom Penh, Institut Français du Cambodge (commissariat de Christian Caujolle); Encontros da Imagem, Brago, Portugal; Festival Photofolies, Rodez; The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finlande 2011: Sub Limis, galerie du Château d'eau de Toulouse, Toulouse 2012–2013: "Hear us marching up slowly", Rencontres d'Arles; Photospring Festival of Caochangdi, Chine (commissaire : Didier de Faÿs) 2015: Entre deux fantômes, Pavillon Vendôme, Clichy 2016: Давайте Мечтать, galerie les Filles du Calvaire, Paris 2017: TRAUM, Patricia Conde Galeria, Mexico, Mexique; Institut Chorégraphique International, Montpellier (commissaire : Christian Rizzo) 2018: Spectrographies, San José foto Festival, Uruguay 2021, "Désidération (Anamanda Sîn)", Rencontres d'Arles
Collections represented
Museum
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