Kiki Smith (American, born Germany, 1954) is among the most significant artists of her generation. Known primarily as a sculptor, she has also devoted herself to printmaking, which she considers an equally vital part of her work.
The daughter of American sculptor Tony Smith, Kiki Smith grew up in New Jersey. As a young girl, one of Smith’s first experiences with art was helping her father make cardboard models for his geometric sculptures. This training in formalist systems, combined with her upbringing in the Catholic Church, would later resurface in Smith’s evocative sculptures, drawings, and prints. The recurrent subject matter in Smith’s work has been the body as a receptacle for knowledge, belief, and storytelling....
I love her woodcuts. They are very detailed, quite stylistic and intriguing.
Woodcut titled Frontier.
Woodcut titled Roam.
The above prints stem from nature.
In the early 1990s, as the human body became a central theme in contemporary art, Smith looked outside the body and began producing closely observed images of nature - from insects, birds, and animals to the cosmos. In these works Smith reveals the precarious state of nature, and man's vital relationship to the environment and its creatures. During this period Smith also discovered that the delicate line attainable with the etching medium was particularly evocative of feathers and fur-motifs that dominate her nature studies. In 1997 she began an important and productive relationship with the New York intaglio workshop, Harlan & Weaver, which fostered her exploration of the medium's potential for her work on this theme. While creating these works, Smith often sketched directly from specimens in natural history museums.
In the early 1990s, as the human body became a central theme in contemporary art, Smith looked outside the body and began producing closely observed images of nature - from insects, birds, and animals to the cosmos. In these works Smith reveals the precarious state of nature, and man's vital relationship to the environment and its creatures. During this period Smith also discovered that the delicate line attainable with the etching medium was particularly evocative of feathers and fur-motifs that dominate her nature studies. In 1997 she began an important and productive relationship with the New York intaglio workshop, Harlan & Weaver, which fostered her exploration of the medium's potential for her work on this theme. While creating these works, Smith often sketched directly from specimens in natural history museums.
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