Sally Smart

Sally Smart (born 1960) is an Australian contemporary artist known for her large-scale assemblage installations that incorporate a range of media, including felt cut-outs, painted canvas, drawings, screen-printing, printed fabric and photography, performance and video.[1][2] Her art addresses gender and identity politics and questions the relationships between body and culture, including trans-national ideas that shaped cultural history. She has exhibited widely throughout Australia and internationally, and her works are held in major galleries in Australia and around the world.

Sally Smart
Born1960 (age 60–61)
Quorn, South Australia, Australia
NationalityAustralian
EducationVictorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne
South Australian School of Art, Adelaide
Known forPainting, Collage, Installation
Notable work
  • The Log Dance (2012)
  • Flauberts Puppets (2011)
  • In Her Nature (2011)
AwardsRedlands Westpac Art Prize, Sydney
Websitewww.sallysmart.com

Early life and education

Smart was born in 1960, in Quorn, South Australia.[3][4][5] Her great-aunt was Bessie Davidson, an Australian-born artist whose success in France in the first half of the twentieth century encouraged Smart in her determination to become an artist.[6] Smart obtained a Diploma in Graphic Design from the South Australian School of Art, Adelaide in 1981,[3][4][5] [7] and completed a Post-graduate Diploma in Painting at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne (1988),[8] followed by a Master of Fine Arts in 1991, also at the Victorian College of the Arts.[3][4][7]

Work

Smart's early work reflected the influence of Collage in painting in Australian art during the 1980s.[9] By the 1990s, "cutting and pasting ha[d] come to the fore" in Smart's work,[9] and she was creating "composition[s] of cut-out shapes [that] meander[] over the walls".[10]

The themes of gender and identity were central to Smart's work from the beginning.[11] Her 1996/1997 work, The Unhomely Body, reflects in its title "the idea of something being unsettling because it contains the familiar rendered unfamiliar, through the emergence of what was previously suppressed. Here the domestic environment is acknowledged as the historical site of female confinement."[9] In her work Femmage Shadows and Symptoms (1999 and later), Smart used the word femmage, created by feminist Miriam Schapiro, to explicitly link to historic traditions of women's making in many mediums and techniques, and feminist political discussions of such women's work,[8][12] with this large-scale installation "creating a surrealistic, dream-like pattern in which the viewer can discover suggestive images that are likely to trigger memories of childhood impressions".[10] In this work, the themes of the home and inner emotions were further developed and exposed, represented also by Smart dressing herself in a costume made up of women's internal body parts.[10]

From 2006, Smart exhibited her Exquisite Pirate installation series internationally. One critic considered the name "a good analogy for Smart’s approach to making art",[8] partly referencing the surrealist technique exquisite corpse,[8] and also implying a strategy of breaking rules for profit, or, "In this case, for stunning visual invention, where phantasmagorical apparitions appear, wreak havoc and disappear into a sea of detail".[8] Another reviewer perceived "a mass of fragments that are forever being reordered and rearranged to forge new meanings and modes of understanding .... Smart explores and eloquently articulates the complexities of these processes".[13]

In her most recent installations, The Choreography of Cutting (The Pedagogical Puppet Projects), Smart "investigat[es] .. three seemingly disparate topics: the historical Avant-Garde, traditional Indonesian folk art and the act of cutting",[14] exploring links between the costume designs of the early 20th century Ballets Russes and traditional Javanese puppetry.[14] Designs were digitally cut up and rearranged,[14] quotes from Gertrude Stein, Pina Bausch, Rudolph von Laban and others were "metaphorically ... ‘cut’ from their original contexts"[14] and "scrawled"[14] over two walls, "us[ing] a process that necessitated the entire body: reaching, bending and moving across the length and height of the canvas: [Smart] has inevitably acted out the topic of investigation".[14] Video works were also incorporated, choreographing puppets and shadows.[14]

Hawker has described how Smart's "art reflects the subversive nature of the Avant-garde in women's art practice. Questions of gender and identity are key concerns in her work, and Smart seek particular inspiration from, and engages with, early twentieth-century innovative modernist women artists."[15]

Smart has exhibited internationally, including at the Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea; Galeri Canna, Jakarta; Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan; Dark Heart: 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; The Pedagogical Puppet Contemporary Galleries, University of Connecticut, USA; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, New York; and Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China.

Smart was a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Melbourne, in 2017;[16] a board member (Deputy Chair) National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA); and was awarded an Australia Council Fellowship (2014) and Sackler Fellow Artist-in Residence, University of Connecticut, USA (2012). She was a Trustee, at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia from 2001-2008.

Smart lives and works Melbourne, Victoria, and also maintains a permanent studio in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where she works with a team of assistants. {{Citation needed|reason=source 14 only backs up the claim of Smart residing in Melbourne.|date=September 2019}} [14]

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions (selection)

Smart has exhibited extensively throughout Australia[1] and internationally, including China, United States, Belgium, Hong Kong, Brazil, New Zealand, Spain and Japan.

  • The Unhomely Body
  • Femmage Shadows and Symptoms[10]
  • 1999, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan[17]
  • 2001, G2 Gallery Auckland New Zealand[17]
  • 2010, McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Australia[17]
  • Family Tree House, 2001, Galeria Barro Senna Sao Paulo, Brazil[17]
  • Sally Smart, 2003, Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art, Melbourne[18]
  • The Exquisite Pirate[13][19][20][6]
  • 2006, Postmasters Gallery, New York[21][22]
  • 2006, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide[17]
  • 2006, Dangerous Waters: Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York[17]
  • 2007, Yawk, Yawk: 24HR Art, Darwin, NT, Australia[17]
  • 2007, North Sea: Ter Caemer-Meert Contemporary, Kortrijk, Belgium[17]
  • 2008, Installation, Scope Basel, Basel, Switzerland[17]
  • 2009, South China Sea: OV Gallery, Shanghai, China[17]
  • 2012, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, UK[17][23]
  • Decoy Nest
  • Flaubert’s Puppets, 2011, Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY, USA[17]
  • Performativities (Work On Paper), 2011, Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong, China[17]
  • The Log Dance (In Her Nature)
  • 2011, Breenspace, Sydney, Australia[17]
  • 2012, ArtHK 2012, Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong, China[17]
  • I Build My Time, 2012, Fehitly Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia[17]
  • Choreographing Collage, 2013, Breenspace Sydney, Australia[17]
  • The Choreography of Cutting (The Pedagogical Puppet Projects)[12][25]
  • 2013, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide, Australia[17]
  • 2015, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, UK[26]
  • 2016, Postmasters Gallery, New York[17]
  • 2017, Sarah Scout Presents, Melbourne, Australia[14]
  • 2018, Tony Raka Art Gallery, Ubud, and P.A.R.A.D.E. at BIASA, Kerobokan, Indonesia[27]
  • The Shadow Trees Sculpture Installation, 2014, Victoria Harbour, Docklands, Melbourne, Australia[17]

Group exhibitions (selection)
  • 2015-2016 Conversation: Endless Acts in Human History, National Gallery of Indonesia[28][29]
  • 2013 COLLECTIVE IDENTITY(IeS): THIS IS THAT TIME - Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery[11]
  • 2012 Contemporary Australia: Women - Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland[15][30]
  • 2002 Arid Arcadia: art of the Flinders Ranges, Art Gallery of South Australia[31]
  • 1998 Unhomely, Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea[32]

Collections

References
  1. "Sally Smart". Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  2. "The Vizard Foundation Art Collection of the 1990s: Australian Art and Artists from the Decade - Sally Smart".
  3. "Sally Smart". Visual Arts Australia. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  4. McCulloch, Alan; McCulloch, Susan; Childs, Emily McCulloch (2006). The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art (4th ed.). Aus Art Editions with The Miegunyah Press. pp. 890–891. ISBN 052285317X.
  5. Germaine, Max (1991). A Dictionary of Women Artists of Australia. Sydney, Australia: Craftsman House. p. 414. ISBN 9768097132.
  6. Lindsay, Robert (2007). "Sally Smart". In Payes, Sonia (ed.). Untitled : portraits of Australian artists. South Yarra, Victoria: Macmillan Art Publishing. pp. 320–325. ISBN 9781876832285.
  7. "Sally Smart". The National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). 1 May 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  8. Lindsay, Robert (2007). "Sally Smart". In Payes, Sonia (ed.). Untitled: Portraits of Australian Artists. Macmillan Education AU. p. 320. ISBN 9781876832285. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  9. McKenzie, Robyn (24 September 1997). "In reality, there's no place like home". The Age. Melbourne. p. C7 (bottom left). Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  10. Marshall, Christopher (2001). "Symbols and Emotions". Macmillan Interpreting Art: A Guide for Students. Sydney, Australia: Macmillan Education. pp. 58–59. ISBN 9780732966065. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  11. "Education Resource Kit - A Case Study: Collective Identity(IeS): this is that time" (PDF). Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery. 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  12. McKenzie, Janet (17 September 2014). "Sally Smart: interview". Studio International. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  13. Miles, Melissa (2006). "Sally Smart: The exquisite pirate". Eyeline. 60: 38–39. ISSN 0818-8734. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  14. Winata, Amelia (21 March 2017). "Preview, Review: Sally Smart: The Choreography of Cutting". Art Guide Australia. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  15. Hawker, Michael (2012). "Sally Smart: A Cast of Dancers". In Ewington, Julie (ed.). Contemporary Australia: women. Brisbane, Queensland: Queensland Art Gallery. p. 128. ISBN 9781921503382.
  16. "Renowned artist Sally Smart to open solo exhibition at Southbank". The University of Melbourne Precinct. 3 October 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  17. Smart, Sally. "Postmasters". Postmasters Gallery. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  18. "Darkness and day". The Age. Melbourne. 24 September 2003. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  19. Catlin, Roger (30 October 2008). "Pirates, Wrecks and Storm-tossed Seas". Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut: 14. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  20. "Take a swim through 'Dangerous Waters'". Star-Gazette. Elmira, New York: 2D. 31 August 2006. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  21. "Sally Smart". Artnet. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  22. Heartney, Eleanor (June–July 2006). "Sally Smart at Postmasters". Art in America. 94 (6): 193. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  23. "Past exhibitions: Sally Smart - The Exquisite Pirate". PurdyHicks. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  24. "Sally Smart The Choreography of Cutting" (PDF). Postmasters Gallery. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  25. Fensham, Rachel (2018). "On Choreography: Femmage, collage, assemblage". Performance Research. 23 (4–5): 266–272. doi:10.1080/13528165.2018.1513206.
  26. "Past exhibitions: Sally Smart - The Choreography of Cutting". PurdyHicks. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  27. Horstman, Richard (26 June 2018). "Smart's East-meets-West immersive puppetry exhibits delight in Bali". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  28. King, Natalie (20 January 2016). "Entang Wiharso and Sally Smart in Conversation". Ocula. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  29. Fischer, Michael M J (2017). "The Work of Epic Art in a Post-Wayang World: An Anthropologist Reads Entang Wiharso and Sally Smart's Conversations". Conversations. Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Black Goat Studio Publications.
  30. "Past exhibitions: Contemporary Australia: Women". GOMA. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  31. Radok, Stephanie (December 2002). "Arid Arcadia: art of the Flinders Ranges - Review". Artlink. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  32. "Past Exhibitions: Unhomely". Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art. Korea.
  33. "Family Tree House (Shadows and Symptoms) 1999-2002". National Gallery of Australia collection. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  34. "Spider Artist (sew me) 1989". National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  35. "The choreography of cutting (the pedagogical puppet projects) 2012-15". National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  36. "NGV Collection Online: Sally Smart". NGV (National Gallery of Australia). Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  37. "Conversation piece #II". Art Gallery of South Australia Collection. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  38. "Exquisite pirate (self)". Art Gallery of South Australia Collection. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  39. "Artist: Sally Smart". Queensland Art Gallery Gallery of Modern Art. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  40. "Collection: Artist - Sally Smart". Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  41. "Search our Collections: Sally Smart". Johnson Museum of Art. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  42. "Imaginary Anatomy (Mirror)". The British Museum Collection Online. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
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