New and recent paintings and sculptures by Shinique Smith are currently on view at Rele Gallery in Los Angeles in “Social Fabrics: Magic & Memory.” On view through March 22, the exhibition showcases the LA-based artist’s adept material manipulation, creating pieces that bulge, expand, and take up space with gathered fabrics pregnant with personal and shared histories.
Whitewall caught up with Smith to learn more about the wonder, enchantment, joy, and reflection of her practice.
Shinique Smith, courtesy of the artist.
WHITEWALL: I can’t begin without asking how you are doing, given the great loss your city has experienced. If you’re okay with sharing, how are you doing?
SHINIQUE SMITH: For me, there have been tears and challenges, gratefully without physical losses. Being surrounded by destruction and feelings of uncertainty, I leaned into my practice for solace and clarity – the only way I know to move forward. Most of us had to decide what we would be able to salvage and take with us if or when we had to evacuate. My sense of gratitude has deepened and expanded since the fires.
WW: What is it like to be showing in Los Angeles at this time, especially as an LA-based artist?
SS: I’ve mostly exhibited outside of LA over the last seven years. so having a show here and now is exciting for me. This show provides an opportunity for me to share what I’ve been contemplating and working through with my community as well as the audience that comes in town for Frieze.
“Social Fabrics: Magic & Memory” at Rele Gallery
Installation view of Shinique Smith at Rele Gallery, photo by Halline Overby.
WW: What was the starting point for the works in this show, “Social Fabrics: Magic & Memory”?
SS: All my works influence each other, because I work on several things at the same time. I cannot say there are starting points, but there are anchor works. Completed a few years ago, Beyond Beneath Lilacs is a progenitor, its color and methods of draping and stretching have influenced many subsequent works.
WW: Your sculptural work takes shape from an accumulation of material that is full of meaning, memory, and stories. What makes a material valuable for you?
SS: I am drawn to materials that are multi-modal, they function as color and pattern, symbolizing personal ideals and memories of joy, love, loss and belonging – the fragility and hope of being human, while maintaining their objecthood.
WW: How do you begin with a sculptural work? Does it begin with the material? The shape? An idea or an impression you want to give to the viewer? How does it work?
SS: Sculptures begin with an idea and shape, and materials relate to that idea. These are informed by how I physically tie and meld the materials—dependent on my body, my hand and arms—the weight I can carry. Building my sculptures is sometimes a struggle especially when I work beyond my height and weight.
“Sculptures begin with an idea and shape, and materials relate to that idea.”
—Shinique Smith
WW: One of your pieces, MITUMBA DEITY II, incorporates a dresser. Can you tell us about this work?
SS: I’ve built a collection of fabrics and objects over twenty plus years that I draw from—many of which come from my home, my closet, my friends and my family—starting with my grandmother’s linen closet. Mitumba Deity II began in 2018, and I developed piece by piece over four years—including vintage jewelry, indigo and other pieces. Completed once placed on my grandmother’s dresser. The piece is mother/crone/buddha-like bundle of comfort and history.
New Sculpture in Conversation with Paintings
Installation view of Shinique Smith at Rele Gallery, photo by Halline Overby.
WW: How do you see your sculpture in relationship to your paintings and collage that we see on view? Do you see them as in conversation?
SS: Painting is always in conversation with sculpture. They share palette, textiles and my hand. Collaged or bundled, bound by ribbon or calligraphic line, my paintings and sculptures confront movement from frenetic motion to a hovering stillness or potential motion.
WW: In your practice, what kinds of colors and textures are you drawn to?
SS: I’ve always been drawn to black and white, to a wide range of blue and to rainbows. Denim features prominently along with florals, paisleys, brocades, polka dots and plaids. Items that represent utopia, pastoral scenes and cultures that relate to my history and my DNA. I am averse to that word “cast-off,” because to me it implies soiled and unwanted rags. My works are built out of more personal stuff, mostly from my own belongings and people within my radius. They are all a reflection of my place in the world and all the connection points.
Shinique Smith Reflects on Frabric’s Relationship to Humanity
Installation view of Shinique Smith at Rele Gallery, photo by Halline Overby.
WW: What kind of feelings do you want to evoke with this exhibition in particular? These—some very new—works?
SS: Wonder. Enchantment. Joy. Reflections on how we are all related and wish to belong. I have strived to evoke these feelings in all my works for over twenty years. Highlighting the spiritual and graceful qualities of the everyday matter we cherish, overconsume and discard by provoking a visceral reaction instead of illustrating or performing these notions. And more than ever, to evoke the fragility brutality and beauty of fabric’s relationship to humanity.
WW: Was there something new you explored with this body of work?
SS: These works carry so many references to the body, my physical and emotional journey of making. From the methodical deliberate movements of collecting, bleaching, dying, sorting, braiding tying with love and care, to my big stretching, reaching brushstrokes to tiny drawing
The viewer and I are engaged in a dance of movement and looking together. They are retracing my steps as they observe these works and it is beautiful to see.
“The viewer and I are engaged in a dance of movement and looking together,”
—Shinique Smith
Installation view of Shinique Smith at Rele Gallery, photo by Halline Overby.
WW: Can you tell us about your studio? What is a typical day like for you?
SS: My typical day, I wake up and thank the universe for my life, stretching, smoothie, and writing at home—then studio. I work everyday in some way. Somedays are free flowing fire moving from work to work, and other days are looking and reflection. Stepping back to look and feel and editing is how I balance.
WW: Outside of this exhibition this week, what are you looking forward to seeing and doing around the fairs in Los Angeles?
SS: LA Art Week is reinvigorating time to catch up with friends from everywhere and to see what they’ve been working on too. I am excited about Nina Chanel Abney and Tschabalala Self‘s shows at Jeffrey Deitch, Sarah Cain at Honor Fraser, Darren Romanelli‘s collab at Moran Moran, and to see friends’ solo booths at Frieze, like Candida Alvarez at Monique Meloche.
Installation view of Shinique Smith at Rele Gallery, photo by Halline Overby.
Shinique Smith, Beyond Beneath Lilacs, 2016, courtesy of the artist and Rele Gallery.
