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focus on the arts
Shinique Smith:
Parade Exhibit at the Ringling
Features Contemporary Sculpture in Conversation with the European Art Collection
This is the first exhibition of
Shinique Smith’s work at The
Ringling Museum and the first time
she has presented her work in direct
dialogue with a museum collection
of historic European art. The
placement of the work reveals the
universality of human experience
explored by artists throughout time.
On View through Jan. 5, 2025
Visitors will find several examples of Smith’s
large-scale fabric sculptures
in conversation with European art
Shinique Smith
standing in front of her sculpture
Mitumba Deity II (2018-2023)
on display in the Astor Salon (Gallery 19)
Visitors to The John and Mable Ringling Museum
of Art have the opportunity to experience
the work of contemporary artist Shinique
Smith (b. 1971) in conversation with the
museum’s collection of European art.
Shinique Smith: Parade is on view in the Museum
of Art through January 5, 2025. Unfolding across six galleries,
the exhibition creates a series of unique stories
that together form an abstract narrative of the “parade”
as a metaphor for life.
“We are so thrilled that Shinique Smith has chosen
to present her work to Sarasota audiences within our
European galleries, where it will provoke conversation
and inspire new ways of seeing and understanding both
historic and contemporary art,” says the exhibition’s curator,
Sarah Cartwright, Chief Curator and Ulla R. Searing
Curator of Collections at The Ringling.
Another scene from the European galleries
Cartwright, who also oversees
the museum’s European collection,
adds, “Shinique chose the
works on view in response to
The Ringling’s magnificent gallery
spaces. The synergy between her
work and our collections is palpable,
and the museum is full of unexpected
moments of beauty and
emotion.”
Well known for her monumental
sculptures created from an
array of materials, including luxurious
textiles, personal clothing,
dyed fabrics, ribbon, and wood,
and for her abstract paintings of
calligraphy and collage, Smith’s
work in this exhibition speaks to
various facets of the European
artistic tradition, such as classical
drapery and religious iconography,
while foregrounding notions of
Black femininity and the history of
the circus.
“My hope for this show is to
create a bridge between differing
depictions of people and the art
histories that inform my hand while
celebrating the beauty
found in our belongings
and honoring the
resilience and magnanimity
of Black women,”
says Smith.
Moving through the
Museum of Art galleries,
which display
European art from
the fifteenth century
through the late nineteenth,
visitors will
find several examples
of Smith’s large-scale
fabric sculptures in
A sculpture called “Stargazer”
conversation with European art, for
example with Italian Baroque paintings
in Gallery 8 and with Gilded
Age interiors from the Astor Mansion
in New York City in Galleries 19
and 20.
Smith’s works in the exhibition
emphasize femininity, as seen
through the eyes of a woman artist.
In works such as Inflamed by
Golden Hues of Love and Mitumba
Deity II, Smith explores her
reverence for the curves and resilience
of Black women, conveyed
through shapely forms bejeweled
and draped in gold. Notions of divinity,
light, death, renewal, and
rebirth pervade sculptural works
like Grace Stands Beside and Stargazer,
the latter inspired by the
imagined path of an enslaved woman
following the stars and counting
the days to her freedom.
The exhibition moves from the
mythic and monumental to the
personal and familial with ease.
Inspired by her admiration for the
beauty that her grandmother and
mother created in times of “making
do” and building magic from
everything they had on hand, the
installation in Gallery 6 will display
a collection of photographs
of the women in Smith’s family
dressed to the nines, along with
some of her own personal treasures,
to form a venerated visual
poem. On view through January 5,
2025. More info at ringling.org
About the Artist
Born in Baltimore, MD, and currently
residing in Los Angeles,
Smith holds BFA and MFA degrees
from the Maryland Institute College
of Art and an MA in Education from
Tufts University. She has received
awards and prizes from Joan Mitchell,
the Tiffany Foundation, Anonymous
Was a Woman, and the American
Academy of Arts and Letters
among others.
Her work has gained attention
through her participation in biennials
and group exhibitions and has
been exhibited and collected by
institutions such as the Baltimore
Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum
of Art, California African American
Museum, Denver Art Museum,
Deutsche Guggenheim, Los Angeles
County Museum of Art; Minneapolis
Institute of Art, MOMA
PS1, Museum of Fine Arts Boston,
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal,
National Museum of Women
in the Arts, and the Whitney Museum
of American Art.
18 WEST COAST WOMAN MARCH 2024