Mimi Smith: Head-on
“Although my earliest work was also feminist in both a personal and political sense there was no available vocabulary for it and it often went misunderstood, or in some cases not seen for decades. The word “feminism” was not a word in my own vocabulary until the early 70’s when its ideas inspired me with hopes and ambitions for things I had not imagined or even considered.” —Mimi Smith, 2017
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very pleased to announce Mimi Smith: Head-on, the pioneering artist’s first solo exhibition on the West Coast, to be presented in Gallery 1 from January 14 through March 4, 2023. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, January 21, from 4 to 7 pm. The exhibition will present sculptures, paintings, and drawings spanning the 1960s to the present.
For nearly six decades, artist Mimi Smith (b. 1942) has created objects that simultaneously engage the personal, domestic sphere and the larger socio-political context of our time. Smith is often regarded as a feminist artist avant la lettre—ahead of her time—creating work that forecasted the Feminist Art Movement of the 1970s. The works presented in this exhibition are indicative of Smith’s experimentation with various mediums in navigating to womanhood, identity and history, and use her body as “the armature for a worn environment.”
Smith’s work remains as fresh and pointed today as it was when she created it. By employing accessible materials and personal narrative, her works raise questions that go far beyond the usual concerns of “art.” She was prescient in her practice rooted in feminist criticism by critiquing the coded, subtle messages within the seemingly innocuous objects and events of everyday life. Mimi Smith’s works expand beyond feminist issues, interrogating contemporary politics, media and the language of art itself.
Mimi Smith (b. 1942, Brookline, MA) received her MFA from Rutgers University in 1966 and her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art in 1963. Her work was included in the seminal exhibition WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution (2007), curated by Connie Butler, and has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States, and internationally at such institutions as the New Museum, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; The Bronx Museum, NY; Hayward Gallery, London; and The Institute of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, among others. Smith has been awarded a Joan Mitchell Grant, a New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant. Smith’s works are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Getty, Los Angeles; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA; The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, among others. Smith lives and works in New York City.