Whitney Biennial 2022: 
Quiet as It’s Kept

Floors 5 and 6

Born 1977 in Detroit, MI
Lives in Providence, RI

Michael E. Smith works with manipulated everyday objects that he reimagines through placement and juxtaposition. Frequently precarious in condition and placed in overlooked spaces, his works evoke a variety of fragile states—physical, economic, political, and emotional. The logic of these works—an appraisal of the relationship between trash and treasure—speaks to a culture of both obscene abundance and rampant need. But Smith’s objects also teem with a sly and biting humor, a form of slapstick that uses breakdowns and stumbles to point to a culture in an ongoing state of collapse.