Exhibitions
DAVID B. SMITH: RE(PLAY)
Slocumb Galleries (ETSU) / 232 Sherrod Dr., Johnson City, TN August 27, 2023 - September 14, 2023
David B. Smith
ETSU Department of Art & Design and Slocumb Galleries in partnership with the ETSU Division of Student Life & Enrollment and Tennessee Arts Commission present re(Play) fiber sculptural installations by artist David Smith with closing reception and artist’s talk on Thursday, September 14th from 5-7pm, at Slocumb Galleries with guest of honor ETSU Dean of Student Engagement Dr. Leah Adinolfi.
David Smith creates installations, fabric-based, photo-sculptures, and sound performance to explore the notions of fantasy, loss, commodity and connection in American Culture. His process of art making begins with collecting photos of memories, scenes from daily life, and the digital collective conscious. He then alters the imagery in Photoshop before having them digitally woven into tapestries. Using a strange language similar to computer code, Smith crafts the fabric tapestries into strange beguiling objects. Smith’s processes are poetic, but also equally unsettling and cozy.
David Benjamin Smith was born in Washington, DC and is a third generation immigrant of Ashkenazic descent. He currently lives in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, NY) and holds a MFA from Bard College. He was awarded a 2020 NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Craft/Sculpture, and residencies with Apex Art, New Zealand; Franconia Sculpture Park, Minnesota; Marble House Project, Vermont; I-Park, Connecticut; Textile Arts Center, Socrates Sculpture Park, Millay Arts, Alfred University, and the BOFFO residency, in New York. Smith’s work has appeared in exhibitions at MoMA PS1, The International Center of Photography, Johannes Vogt Gallery, Museum Rijswijk, Asia Song Society, with solo shows at Geary Contemporary, Planthouse, Spring Break Art / Show, Halsey McKay Gallery in New York, and David B. Smith Gallery in Denver, CO (a different David B. Smith). Another World: The Textile Art of David B. Smith was on view in 2020-21 at Millersville University in Lancaster, PA, and SUNY Old Westbury in Long Island, NY. He designed a digital interactive version to accompany Another World, enabling him to engage the students during the pandemic. His work is in the collections of Peggy Cooper Cafritz, Beth Rudin DeWoody, and Yale University, and has been discussed in The Observer, VICE, Time Out, The Washington Post, and the New York Times.
The re(Play) exhibit is on view weekdays from 9am-5pm until September 14th at Slocumb Galleries located at Ernest C. Ball Hall, 232 Sherrod Drive, ETSU campus. For additional information, contact ETSU Tipton and Slocumb Galleries Director Karlota Contreras-Koterbay at contrera@etsu.edu. For disability accommodations, call the ETSU Office of Disability Services at (423) 439-8346.
