Anj Smith Book Lab

22 Sep - 21 Nov 2015

London

About

Anj Smith's ‘Book Lab’ uncovers a selection of the artist's reference library and sources of inspiration. On display in two vitrines, the artist’s source materials, drawn directly from the studio, weave together diverse areas of interest including the natural sciences, jewellery, fashion and art historical genres including Mughal painting and the German Renaissance. The reference library selected by the artist features an equally extensive breadth ranging from classic works of literature by John Milton, Vladimir Nabokov and Virginia Woolf to seminal philosophical texts from Pierre Bourdieu, Judith Butler and Noam Chomsky. Plays and poetry also feature, namely ‘The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens’ from which the neighbouring exhibition ‘Phosphor for Palms’ draws its title. The reference library presented on a low coffee table and a vintage library trolley offers the viewer an accessible space in which to explore and discover the work of the artist.

‘Echo’ (2014), an edition by the artist, is displayed alongside a small book feature with ‘Anj Smith. Paintings’, the monograph released by Hauser & Wirth with MACK in 2013, and the most recent issue of the gallery’s magazine, ‘Volume 6’, which included a poster designed by Smith.

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About the Artist

Anj Smith’s work negotiates the space between the genres of portraiture, landscape, and still-life. In her interrogation and celebration of the medium of painting, alluring flora and fauna—from vines, flowers, and ivy to ambiguous creatures and human figures—populate ecologically devastated landscapes. Refusing fast consumption, her work explores issues of gender, ecology, anxiety, and eroticism.

Born in 1978 in Kent, UK, Anj Smith studied at Slade School of Fine Art and at Goldsmiths College in London. Smith has exhibited at institutions around the world, including Museo Stefano Bardini, Florence, Italy; The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK; Mostyn, Llandudno, UK; Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland; Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK; Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville TN, and La Maison Rouge, Paris, France. Smith’s work is also displayed in the collections of many leading international museums including The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; MOCA The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles CA; The Roberts Institute of Art, London, and the Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland.