Gwen Smith
Mother, Lover, Artist
(b. 1968) Smith lives and works in Long Island City -QUEENS, New York. She received a BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1990 where she studied with Stan Brakhage, Joseph Juhasz, and Manning Marable. After moving to New York in 1991 she studied at the International Center of Photography with Jules Allen. Recent course work with Justine Kurland jettisoned an awareness of Smith as one of the most relevant artists of her generation.
Her very first job in NYC was as a Photography Assistant to Lorna Simpson. In 1992 Smith became a Photography Research Editor for publications including COLORS, Vogue and The New Yorker, stopping her editorial career to pursue motherhood in 2004 and raise her son River who is currently a sophomore at Pitzer College in Claremont California.
She has collaborated with her partner Haim Steinbach since 1993.
Smith has been in exhibitions at institutions including MoMA PS1; the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA; Castelli Gallery, NY; Lia Rumma Gallery, Naples Italy, and Huxley Parlour, London.
Smith has published multiple monographs including The Black Woman Project (Vol. 1&2) and Selfies, Island, ORIGIN, & The Chance Whale.
Smith received a Rauschenberg Emergency Grant in 2021. She was a 2021-22 Artist in Residence at The Center for Book Arts in NYC and a 2022-2023 Baxter Street Artist in Residence.
Her books are in prestigious library collections including the Thomas J. Watson Library at Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New School, The Clark Library at Williamstown Mass, RIT, Ohio University among others.
Her first Solo Show -The Chance Whale- debuted at Baxter Street in early 2023.
Smith was the inaugural artist in residence at Residency on the Rock, 7|G Foundation in May 2023 that included her follow up solo show- Mocha Island.
Her poetry broadside A TOTEM OF HEARTS was distributed at the Guggenheim Museum c/o poet Ama Codjoe 2023 poet in residence
Smith was a participant at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, 2023.
photo by Harlan Bozeman, Shahn Studios, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, 8/2023