Kiki Smith

1954–

Since the 1980s Kiki Smith has focused her art on the human body, creating transgressive, often disturbing works that deal with themes related to the life cycle—reproduction, decay, mortality, and regeneration—as well as the role of women in society. Smith’s work often aims to undermine customary modes of perceiving the human body. As she remarked, “Most of the functions of the body are hidden or separated from society; . . . we separate our bodies from our lives.” In her hand-wrought sculptures Smith explores corporeal textures and functions using nontraditional materials such as hair, latex, beeswax, glass, and porcelain. Untitled, one of Smith’s earliest large-scale wax sculptures, consists of two life-sized figures, a man and a woman, suspended from metal poles as though exhibited in a natural history museum or other site of public display. Although life-giving secretions—milk and semen—drip from the woman and man, respectively, the two figures hang lifelessly, the areas of red-tinted wax gruesomely visible beneath the outer layers of their skin suggesting internal damage or dissolution.

Often, Smith fuses her interest in the body with themes drawn from the Bible and ancient mythology, as in Pieta. This drawing, a self-portrait of the artist holding her deceased cat Ginzer, is based on Christian depictions of the grieving Virgin Mary cradling the dead Christ in her arms—a subject known as the pietà, from the Italian word for pity or devotion. Here, Smith uses the familiar art-historical representation to memorialize her own grief and experience of loss. The delicate, slightly crinkled Nepalese paper on which the drawing is rendered emphasizes the fragility of life and the intimate bond between the artist and her beloved pet.

Wikipedia entry

Introduction

Kiki Smith (born January 18, 1954) is a German-born American artist whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. Her figurative work of the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted subjects such as AIDS, feminism, and gender, while recent works have depicted the human condition in relationship to nature. Smith lives and works in the Lower East Side, New York City, and the Hudson Valley, New York State.

Wikidata identifier

Q447300

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Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed May 23, 2025.

Getty record

Introduction

American painter, sculptor and printmaker. Born in Germany to American parents, she has lived in the United States since infancy.

Country of birth

Germany

Roles

Artist, etcher, lithographer, painter, photographer, sculptor

ULAN identifier

500115982

Names

Kiki Smith, Ḳiḳi Smit

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Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed May 23, 2025.

Not on view

First acquired
1991

Date of birth
January 18, 1954

API
artists/3383