Kiki Smith: Behold at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

Internationally acclaimed artist Kiki Smith, exhibits her first UK solo show since 2006 at Timothy Taylor Gallery this October and will feature sculpture, bronze wall reliefs, stained glass, porcelain figures and tapestry.

Since the early 1980s, Smith has ‘used the body as metaphor, drawing upon myth, spirituality and narrative to consider the human condition, its strengths and its frailties’. More recently Smith’s work has been concerned with the interdependence of the natural world; her exhibitions and installations express the vitality of an animistic, spiritually charged universe.

Kiki Smith’s imagery shows the fundamental elements of life: humans in their diversity; animals, birds and reptiles; flora and fauna; geology and the elements; as well as the firmament with its suns and moons and stars, all in generative and destructive harmony. She creates an idiosyncratic cosmology.

Smith’s work draws upon the vast manifestations of creativity throughout history, including Byzantine icons, medieval tapestries, 1920s Hollywood, ancient Greek sculptural female figures known as Korai, and film techniques such as jump-cuts, pixellation, and storyboards. This exhibition explores Smith’s interest in narrative and storytelling through sequencing, and the mysteries that inhabit the imaginary and literal space between works. A major theme within the exhibition emerges from the number of works that closely interrelate with or echo each other.

Kiki Smith, 12 October until 17 November, Timothy Taylor Gallery, 15 Carlos Place, London, W1K 2EX. www.timothytaylorgallery.com

Credits:

1. Blue Moon 1, 2011, © Kiki Smith; Courtesy Pace Gallery, New York; Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
2. Telling, 2010, © Kiki Smith; Courtesy Pace Gallery, New York; Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
3. Bough, 2012, © Kiki Smith; Courtesy Pace Gallery, New York; Timothy Taylor Gallery, London