Shinique Smith

Skip to main content
Collections Menu
Image Not Available for Shinique Smith
Shinique Smith
Image Not Available for Shinique Smith

Shinique Smith

born Baltimore, MD 1971
BiographyShinique Smith was born in Baltimore, where she earned both her BFA and MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Currently dividing her time between New York and Los Angeles, Smith creates monumental works that combine painting and sculpture—along with clothing, fabric, and calligraphy—in a meditation on the material of the world. Smith has created large-scale public art for Enoch Pratt Free Library, Mural Arts in Philadelphia, and the Chicago Transit Authority, among others. Her recent solo exhibition Shinique Smith: Refuge, at the California African American Museum, focused on landscapes of displacement.

“The clothing and objects that I use in my work . . . come from my home, from my friends and family, and from places I’ve travelled. Some bits and pieces I have had for 10 years or more. Some pieces of clothing are irreplaceable, so I have savored them over time—using a little here and a little there until just one sleeve or collar is left. The history of each object is inherited and absorbed into whole clusters of color add relative meaning.”
Person TypeIndividual