ASPEN ART MUSEUM
MAGAZINE
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Meet the Artists
stencils created by punching holes in card, she began making richly textured abstract paintings with a circle motif in the 1970s. But, as she explains in an interview with Alayo Akinkugbe in AnOther magazine in March this year , this fascination for the circle is firmly rooted in her childhood: both via the gift of a microscope she received as a small child, with which she inspect- ed the drinking water in her hometown of Philadelphia, and her recollection of a trip with her father to northern Kentucky, when it was still segregated, where she was given a mug to drink from with a large red circle on the bottom—a system to avoid Black people sharing crockery with white custom- ers. This continuity of subject matter is also apparent in two of Pindell’s film works: Free, White and 21 , made in 1980, in which Pindell recounts to camera her own experiences of racism, was fol- lowed 40 years later by Rope/Fire/Water (2020), in which she combines personal anecdotes with historical material, detailing lynchings and racist attacks in the US. Pindell’s work is held in the permanent collections of major museums internationally, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Cauleen Smith Work kindly donated by the artist and Morán Morán Based in Los Angeles, Cauleen Smith is an interdisciplinary artist working across a diverse range of media. She is perhaps best known as a filmmaker and during her MFA at University of California, LA, she embarked on mak- ing a feature-length film. Completed in 1998, Drylongso is the story of a young black woman studying photography. Addressing issues of gender, race and identity, it went onto garner much praise and receive a number of awards. Throughout her work, Smith deals with African-American identity and Black feminism. The breadth of her interests and sources is remarkable: the jazz musician Alice Coltrane, as well as the legendary Sun Ra; literature, including the science fiction writings of Octavia E. Butler; the work of Paul Thek; Afrofuturism; flora; and the Shaker religion. Much of her practice is rooted in delving into an eclectic range of archives. In an interview with Flash Art in 2019, she outlined her approach: “Even though I’m a filmmaker, I have a profound resistance to representation of the figure […] So for me the archive is about all the things that cannot be replicated and rendered, about interior- ity instead of about representation. I don’t think I hold myself to very high ethical standards when it comes to archives. I go into archives to answer my own questions or find new questions to ask.” Fascinated by the possibilities of the imagination, in the same interview Smith explains: “I’m actually just interested in the wondrously inventive ways that people survive trauma with- out subjecting those around them to its reenactment.”
Smith, who has an upcoming exhibition at the Aspen Art Museum this winter, has exhibited extensively around the world, staged screenings at international institutions and film festivals, including Sundance and in Smuggler Mine here in Aspen last year. She is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the 2022 Heinz Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2021. Her work is held in key collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She is Professor at CalArts School of Art, LA. Phillip K. Smith III Work kindly donated by the artist and Hexton Gallery Phillip K. Smith III grew up in Coachella Valley and after heading east to study both art and architecture at Rhode Island School of Design, he returned to Southern California, mak- ing Palm Desert his home. Creating light sculptures and large immersive installations, this setting is at the very core of his practice, as he plays with ideas of space, form, color, light and shadow, environment and change. Smith’s breakthrough work was Lucid Stead (2013), in which he modified a traditional homestead shack in Joshua Tree, transforming it with mirrored strips that gave the impression of trans- parency, but instead created a reflective structure in dynamic relationship with the sky and land around it. Constantly experimenting with new processes and materials, his fas- cination for the desert, focus on light, and clean, minimal aesthetic, have led to inevitable connections being made to historic figures such as Donald Judd and James Turrell. The pure, simple, geometric forms and reflective surfaces are inspired by the sky and barren landscape of the desert; informed by the quality and shifts of light, Smith creates works with ever-changing colors. As they transform in response to their setting, the experience of the audience is con- stantly evolving. In an interview with Franceasca Seiden in Whitehot maga- zine in 2016, the artist observed: “These works make us step away from our pattern, our life, our work, our errands and our conversations, and allow us to see sublime beauty shifting and chang- ing before our eyes. Those are the moments that make life worth living.” Smith has created temporary works around the world, including at Coachella Music and Arts Festival (2014) and Salone del Mobile, Milan (2018). He has held solo exhibitions at Palm Springs Art Museum and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (both 2022), as well as numerous permanent commissions, such as the Detroit Skybridge (2018) a reactivation of a defunct pedestrian walkway linking two towers.
Left Cauleen Smith.
Courtesy: the artist; photograph; Joshua Franzos Below, left Phillip K. Smith III. Courtesy: the artist; photograph: Lance Gerber
Online auction closes Saturday, August 5th, 12pm MT at sothebys. com/aspenartmuseum Live auction takes place Friday, August 4th at 8pm MT, at the ArtCrush Gala Phone and absentee bids accepted. For all enquiries, email bid@ aspenartmuseum.org No buyer’s premium! View and bid on works at sothebys.com/ aspenartmuseum
Visit the museum and view the ArtCrush Auction Exhibition July 26—August 3, 2023.
Sara Harrison is a freelance editor. She lives in London, UK.
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