Exhibition Information Date:  November 19, 2005 - January 29, 2006 Place:  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Address:  San Francisco, California Date:  February 26 - May 14, 2006 Place:  Walker Art Center, Galleries 4, 5, 6 Date:  July 22 - September 24, 2006 Place:  Contemporary Arts Museum Address:  Houston, Texas Date:  November 16, 2006 - February 11, 2007 Place:  Whitney Museum of American Art Address:  New York Date:  May 31 - October 8, 2007 Place:  La Coleccion Jumex Address:  Mexico City View all associated images View this exhibition in the Walker Calendar
		Image: Kiki Smith, Getting the Bird Out , 1992 bronze and string head: 10 x 11-1/2 x 7 in. bird: 1-1/2 x 6 x 1-1/2 in. installation dimensions variable Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York; Collection the estate of Jane Lawrence Smith, New York

Best known for her provocative depictions of the human form, Kiki Smith has explored a range of subjects, from natural science to mythology. By turns intimate, universal, earthy, and fragile, her art renders the figure in frank, nonheroic terms, expressing its dual aspects of vulnerability and strength. Comprising more than 125 works, this Walker-organized 25-year survey reveals the startling symbolic potential in Smith’s choice of both traditional and unexpected materials in sculpture and also features prints, drawings, photographs, editioned objects, films, and installations.

The human body—both in anatomical fragments and in full figure—is at the heart of Smith’s art. “I think I chose it as a subject because it is the one form that we all share,” she says. “It’s something that everybody has their own authentic experience with.” Her earliest works investigated its form and functions, which she articulated through individual parts, suggesting flesh with delicate handmade papers and fashioning internal organs and systems from fragile materials such as glass, papier-mâché, terra-cotta, and plaster. In the early nineties, she gained widespread attention for her life-size figures in wax and bronze depicting naked female bodies in disturbing, visceral poses.

Smith’s work has long addressed the ambiguous and difficult relationship between female artists and feminist issues. In the mid-nineties, she began to engage with themes from literature, history, and folklore, reinterpreting biblical and mythological women as inhabitants of resolutely physical bodies. More recently, her vocabulary has expanded to include animals, the cosmos, and the natural world: “My work has evolved from minute particles within the body, up through the body, and landed outside the body. Now I want to roam around the landscape.” In pieces that merge human and animal, she creates new mythologies, finding in the mortality that has pervaded so much of her process the possibility of rebirth. In her art, Smith has staged a persistent inquiry that has resulted in works of uncommon power and beauty, inviting us to reexamine ourselves, our history, and our place in the world.

Curator: Siri Engberg

Kiki Smith: A Gathering, 1980–2005 is made possible by generous support from the Elizabeth A. Sackler Museum Educational Trust. Additional support is provided by Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, and Lowry Hill Private Wealth Management, and Donna Miller. Promotional partner Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. Exclusive hotel sponsor Millennium Hotel, Minneapolis.

The exhibition catalogue is made possible by generous support from PaceWildenstein. Additional support for the catalogue is provided by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of Walker Art Center publications.

	Studio Class Body as Subject Thursdays in April 6 - 27, 2006   6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
	Gallery Talk The Creation Stories of Kiki Smith Sunday, March 19, 2006   3:00 pm
	Discussion Café Scientifique Organizing Life: A New Evolution Tuesday, March 14, 2006   6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
	Gallery Talk Siri Hustvedt on Kiki Smith Target Free Thursday Nights Thursday, March 9, 2006   7:00 pm
	Book Club The Artist’s Bookshelf: Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler Target Free Thursday Nights Thursday, March 2, 2006   7:00 pm
	Mack Lecture Kiki Smith and Peter Schjeldahl in Conversation Sunday, February 26, 2006   2:00 pm
	Special Event Preview Party Saturday, February 25, 2006   9:00 pm to 12:00 am

A Walker Farewell: Smith/Soth/Weinberg http://blogs.walkerart.org/offcenter/2007/08/27/walker-farewell-smithsothweinberg/ Walker blogs, Off Center: Staff

Museum Exhibition Title Graphics http://blogs.walkerart.org/design/2009/07/30/museum-exhibition-title-graphics/ Walker blogs, Design: Flat Files

In the Walker Shop http://shop.walkerart.org/default.aspx?ck=PAYWKGHUVD&pk=5ACB1F23AD§ion=Product&SectionID=1024&Details=5775503 The 312-page exhibition catalogue offers critical essays by exhibition curator Siri Engberg, art historian Linda Nochlin, and folklorist Marina Warner, an interview with Kiki Smith by novelist Lynne Tillman, and a comprehensive illustrated chronology of the artist’s life and work. Hardcover $65 ($58.50 Walker members); softcover $35 ($31.50).

Bookshelf: By Hand http://blogs.walkerart.org/offcenter/?p=571 Walker blogs, Off Center: Books

Centerpoints 4.1 http://blogs.walkerart.org/offcenter/?p=573 Walker blogs, Off Center: News

Kiki Smith: Keeping the Faith http://visualarts.walkerart.org/detail.wac?id=2720&title=Articles An interview with novelist Lynne Tillman.

Centerpoints 5.5 http://blogs.walkerart.org/offcenter/?p=680 Walker blogs, Off Center: Centerpoints