Assembled sculptures and three-dimensional installations of found, bought, and created objects, Shinique Smith’s works serve as a kind of portrait, referencing the original owners of the included objects. Smith writes that her work implies multiple reads and is informed by an enduring interest in how things shape our experiences. Constantly exploring the personal significance of things, or possessions, Smith reinterprets the “personal myths” we build through the objects we either choose to keep or discard, exposing the relationship between excess, or waste, and personal meaning or market value, which resonate on a socially and spiritually.
Born in Baltimore, Shinique Smith earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has had exhibitions at the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Socrates Sculpture Park, and the Yvon Lambert Gallery in New York.
