Much like past contestants on the reality show Project Runway are often tasked with combining their creativity and sewing skills to transform used articles of clothing into something fiercely innovative, New York-based artist Shinique Smith manipulates abandoned materials such as old clothing, shoes, picture frames and even her grandmother’s old sheets to make an altogether different statement. But instead of floating down a runway, Smith’s original creations come to life through paintings, murals and installations influenced by astrology, Tibetan culture, mythology, fashion, calligraphy and more.
A graduate of Tufts University and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Maryland Institute College of Art, Smith’s contemporary artwork has been displayed in both individual and group exhibitions in major US cities, as well as Italy, Germany and Belgium, among other European countries. Currently, her “Bright Matter” exhibition can be seen at The Museum of Fine Arts Boston. It features 30 select works of art that highlight the past 10 years of the Baltimore native’s career, plus more than 12 new additions that range from sculptures and paintings to installations and videos.
Here are 5 interesting facts about Shinique Smith:
Gravity of Love
1. Smith inherited her love for the arts. Raised by a single mother who worked as the editor of a fashion magazine, Smith seems to have been born with the blood of the art world coursing through her veins. Smith’s mother also worked as a designer and studied at the Paris Fashion Institute.
Molly Holly Street
2. Smith has a background in graffiti. With the longstanding debate over whether graffiti is merely vandalism or a legitimate art form, it’s difficult to simply dismiss it as the handiwork of young, talentless outlaws specifically when the graffiti roots Smith established as a high school student remain so clearly ingrained in her work.
3. She repurposes her own artwork. Smith turned her 2011 “Through the Native Streets” collage into a reusable shopping bag.
4. Smith recently designed a mural titled “Seven Moon Junction” that was commissioned by Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy. Situated in the city’s Dewey Square Park, Smith says of her 70 x 76-foot creation: “I see this piece, as a mural that extends beyond the wall, as it attunes to the space in which it sits, radiating energy outward to the rest of the city and its occupants.”
Mother Clara’s Garden
5. Some of her artwork represents the civil rights movement. For New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts for Transit program, Smith created a mosaic titled “Mother Clara’s Garden,” designed to adorn the Mother Clara Hale Bus Depot in Harlem. In Alabama, Smith paid homage to the victims of the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing by gathering items such dolls, clothing and toys from Birmingham residents to create an installation that reflects the lives of the four young girls killed in the incident.
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