Engaging the most urgent social and spiritual issues of our day, the powerfully expressive work of artist Kiki Smith has helped restore the human body to a central place in contemporary art. Born in 1954, she created in the 1980s individual artworks and stunning installations, in mediums ranging from paper and glass to cast bronze, that used anatomy as a starting point for a broad exploration of the cultural, political, and social meanings of the human body. In the 1990s, having emerged as a leading artist of her generation, she extended her inquiry to the natural world. Direct and accessible, populist in the best sense, Smith's work engages the viewer in a sometimes viscerally disturbing way.
Helaine Posner uncovers the origins of Smith's work and proposes an interpretive framework that locates it within the artistic traditions that have nourished Smith. David Frankel's interview provides new insight into Smiths artistic thought. As the first monographic survey of her career, Kiki Smith is an essential reference in contemporary art.
