Kiki Smith

Kiki Smith (b. 1954) is a German-born American artist whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. Her figurative work of the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted subjects such as AIDS, feminism, and gender, while recent works have depicted the human condition in relationship to nature. Smith lives and works on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and in the Hudson Valley.

Early Life and Education

Smith's father was artist Tony Smith, and her mother was actress and opera singer Jane Lawrence. Although her work takes a very different form than that of her parents, early exposure to her father’s process of making geometric sculptures allowed her to experience Modernism’s formal craftsmanship firsthand. Her childhood experience in the Catholic Church, combined with a fascination for the human body, shaped her artwork conceptually.

Work

Prompted by her father’s death in 1980, and the subsequent death of her sister Beatrice “Bebe” Smith, due to AIDS in 1988, Smith began an ambitious investigation of mortality and the physicality. She studied to be an emergency medical technician in 1984 and sculpted body parts. By 1990, she began to craft human figures.

Themes

Smith’s work is characterized by a fearless confrontation with challenging subjects—sex, birth, regeneration, gender, nature, and the often-uncomfortable realities of bodily functions. She doesn't shy away from exploring the messy, imperfect aspects of human existence, using her art as a platform to address social issues and provoke dialogue.

Major Achievements

Smith received the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture in 2000, the Athena Award for Excellence in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2005, the fiftieth Edward MacDowell Medal from the MacDowell Colony in 2009, and has participated in the Whitney Biennial three times in the past decade. In 2005, Smith was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

• Her sculptures are in numerous prominent museum collections
• She lives and works in New York City

Historical Significance

Smith’s impact on contemporary art is undeniable. Her work has been widely exhibited in museums around the world, and she has received numerous awards and honors.