Kiki Smith "I Am a Wanderer" at Modern Art Oxford, London

Installation view of tapestries and sculpture by Kiki Smith at Modern Art Oxford. Photo by Ben Westoby © Kiki Smith
"I Am a Wanderer," a retrospective exhibition of prints, sculptures, and tapestries by Kiki Smith, is currently on view at Modern Art Oxford in London.

The exhibition is curated by Petra Giloy-Hirtz and runs from September 28, 2019 through January 19, 2020.

Giloy-Hirtz writes:

In these works, a menagerie of real and mystical creatures, delicate plants and shooting stars are presented to us in an astonishing abundance of materials. Endlessly inventive, Smith has fashioned animal assortments in bronze, shells from gold, frogs from coloured glass, birds from beads, sea creatures from ink and flowers from precious silver. Exquisitely detailed etchings and drawings can also be seen alongside large-scale tapestries depicting empowered goddesses traveling through wild forests and starlit skies.

Magnolia Editions is the publisher of Kiki Smith's tapestries; to date, the artist has created twelve woven editions with Magnolia.

Please visit Magnolia's website to see more tapestries by Kiki Smith, or order the catalog Kiki Smith: Tapestries here.

For more information on the "I Am a Wanderer" exhibition including hours and admission details, please visit Modern Art Oxford.

Kiki Smith "Woodland" at Timothy Taylor Gallery

Kiki Smith tapestries installed at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London. Photo by Timothy Taylor Gallery
Timothy Taylor Gallery in London recently exhibited all of Kiki Smith's tapestry editions to date in a show titled "Woodland."

Kiki Smith tapestries installed at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London. Photo by Timothy Taylor Gallery
The tapestries are published by Magnolia Editions in limited editions of ten; each measures nearly ten feet in height. Two bands of textural imagery run along the top and bottom of each tapestry, suggesting the natural realms of sky and underground – a compositional device borrowed from the medieval Apocalypse Tapestry, a major influence on Smith's woven editions.

Kiki Smith tapestries installed at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London. Photo by Timothy Taylor Gallery

Kiki Smith tapestries installed at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London. Photo by Timothy Taylor Gallery
The gallery writes:

"Produced in collaboration with Magnolia Editions, the tapestries are rich with allegory, conflating Smith’s confrontation of subjects such as identity, mortality and women’s liberation with visual metaphors in the form of mystical creatures and nude human forms."

Kiki Smith tapestries installed at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London. Photo by Timothy Taylor Gallery
Please stay tuned for a forthcoming catalog, coming soon from Magnolia Editions, collecting Smith's tapestries and featuring an in-depth interview with the artist.

For now, check out this interview Vogue Magazine conducted with Smith about her tapestries on the occasion of their exhibition in "Woodland."

Kiki Smith tapestries installed at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London. Photo by Timothy Taylor Gallery

Kiki Smith tapestries installed at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London. Photo by Timothy Taylor Gallery

Kiki Smith tapestries installed at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London. Photo by Timothy Taylor Gallery
More art by Kiki Smith from Magnolia Editions

"Nomadic Murals: Contemporary Tapestries and Carpets" at Boca Raton Museum of Art

Alexandre Arrechea - Mask Series: Havana, 2016
Jacquard tapestry, 99 x 99 in. Edition of 3
Numerous tapestries published by Magnolia Editions will appear in "Nomadic Murals: Contemporary Tapestries and Carpets," on view at the Boca Raton Museum of Art from April 24 – October 21, 2018.

The show is not limited to tapestries from Magnolia: tapestry publications from the studio by artists such as Kiki Smith, Aziz & Cucher, Alex Katz, Kiki Smith, Nancy Spero, and Alexandre Arrechea will be exhibited alongside woven works by various other artists including William Kentridge, Fred Tomaselli, Kara Walker, and Kehinde Wiley.

Kiki Smith - Harbor, 2015
Jacquard tapestry, 116 x 76 in. Edition of 10
The exhibition’s title refers to the portable nature of the medium; the phrase “nomadic mural” is borrowed from an essay about tapestry by Modernist architect Le Corbusier.

Throughout the centuries, notes the exhibition press release, important artists such as Rubens and Raphael were famous for their tapestries, and in the 20th century artists including Picasso, Braque, Leger, and Miro embraced the medium. Today, artists have increasingly incorporated tapestry into their oeuvre no matter the medium for which they are known.

For more details, please visit the Boca Raton Museum of Art website.

"Ethics Excess Extinction" at El Paso Museum of Art

Kiki Smith - Congregation, 2014
Jacquard tapestry, 116 x 76 in. Edition of 10
Opening January 26, 2018 at the El Paso Museum of Art and curated by Randy Jayne Rosenberg of Art Works for Change, "Ethics Excess Extinction" features contemporary artists exploring the theme of endangered animal species:

The exhibition explores the reality of animal life: cruelty towards animals as seen through factory farming; the breeding of animals for their hides and fur; hunting animals for their potential medicinal powers; and an alternative vision of the world where all animals are respected and protected from suffering and commercial exploitation. The artists examine the many sides of the story: from the philosophical, where animals are regarded as emotional beings in which we recognize ourselves, to the economic, where animals are killed and sold to support the demands of luxury markets.

Kiki Smith - Earth, 2012
Jacquard tapestry, 116 x 75 in. Edition of 10
Participating artists include Kiki Smith, Chris Jordan, Esther Traugot, and Nick Brandt, who variously use poetry, humor, technology, and scale to explore the plight of endangered animals and our relationship to them. Artworks range from three tapestries by Smith (published by Magnolia Editions) to large-scale photographs to literal “white elephants” in the room created by Miami sculptor Billie Grace Lynn.

For more information on the exhibition, please visit Art Works for Change.

Kiki Smith - Sojourn, 2015
Jacquard tapestry, 116 x 76 in. Edition of 10

Kiki Smith at Thomas Cole House, Catskill, NY

click to enlarge invitation
"Kiki Smith: From the Creek" opens this Saturday, August 12, 2017 at the Thomas Cole House, a National Historic Landmark that includes the home and the studio of painter Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School of American painting.

In "From the Creek," Smith worked with curator Kate Menconeri to site over 25 artworks inside and outside of the 200-year-old home, including recent prints, life-sized bronze sculptures, and Jacquard tapestries published by Magnolia Editions.

A reception and preview with the artist will be held August 12 from 5 to 7 pm; please RSVP by August 8 to info@thomascole.org.

Exhibitions: Aziz + Cucher, Kiki Smith, Don & Era Farnsworth

Donald and Era Farnsworth - Shadow (Cinderella), 2017
pigmented inkjet on Hahnemuhle photo rag paper, 58 x 40 inches
Curator Randy Rosenberg's Art Works for Change will present "The True Stories Project" from May 1 through May 31, 2017 at the Patan Museum, a Unesco World Heritage site in Kathmandu, Nepal.

"The True Stories Project" began as a series of interactive workshops over a six-month period, as Art Works for Change, in collaboration with the Kathmandu-based Siddhartha Gallery, used the arts and storytelling activities to help empower victims of sex trafficking and those at risk for exploitation in Oakland, CA and Nepal.

The project has since grown into an exhibition that combines artwork produced in the project with artworks created by invited artists whose work resonates with the show's themes of exploitation and empowerment.

Participating artists include Donald & Era Farnsworth, Hung Liu, Lin Tianmiao, Parastou Forouhar, Thomas L. Kelly, Ang Tsherin Sherpa, Grassroots Girls Book Club, Hit Man Gurung, Stacy Leigh, AWARE/OWARE Game for Female Empowerment, Natalie Naccache, Sheelasha Raibhandari, The Ugly Truth Campaign, Gabriela Morawetz, Girls Inc, Siddhartha Gallery, and others.

Aziz + Cucher with curator Mizuki Takahashi at MILL6 in Hong Kong
In other international news, Brooklyn-based artist duo Aziz + Cucher recently exhibited four tapestries created with Magnolia Editions in a show titled Line of Times at the MILL6 Foundation's Pop-Up Space at the Annex in Hong Kong, alongside works by Yin-Ju Chen and Morgan Wong.

Curator Mizuki Takahashi with work by Aziz + Cucher at MILL6 in Hong Kong
The works in Line of Times explore various perspectives on the concept of time in both the metaphysical and physical sense. MILL6 Senior Curator Mizuki Takahashi writes: "the multi-disciplinary artworks exhibited resonate with the fluidity of interpreting the subject, a universal yet subjective experience, with immeasurable impact on human existence, shared knowledge and evolutional civilization."

Aziz + Cucher tapestries at MILL6 in Hong Kong
For this exhibition – the artists' first in Hong Kong – Aziz + Cucher produced four large-scale Jacquard tapestries with Magnolia Editions, three of which were commissioned and will become part of MILL6's permanent collection.

Aziz + Cucher tapestries at MILL6 in Hong Kong

Aziz + Cucher tapestry at MILL6 in Hong Kong
Finally, Kiki Smith tapestries published by Magnolia Editions are currently on view at Robischon Gallery in Denver, CO from March 16th through May 6, 2017.

Tapestries by Kiki Smith at Robischon Gallery in Denver, CO
"Kiki Smith: Selections from the Jacquard Tapestry Series" includes four tapestry editions by Smith, installed so that they can be seen from the street and at night.

Tapestries by Kiki Smith at Robischon Gallery in Denver, CO

Tapestries by Kiki Smith at Robischon Gallery in Denver, CO

Tapestry by Kiki Smith at Robischon Gallery in Denver, CO
More art by Donald & Era Farnsworth from Magnolia Editions

More art by Aziz + Cucher from Magnolia Editions

More art by Kiki Smith from Magnolia Editions

Kiki Smith at Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, Rome through Nov. 26

Installation view of tapestries Fortune (2014) and Guide (2013), published by Magnolia Editions, with other works by Kiki Smith;
courtesy Galleria Lorcan O'Neill
A special exhibition by Kiki Smith and Betty Woodman is on view at Galleria Lorcan O’Neill in Rome through November 26, 2016.

Betty Woodman and Kiki Smith; courtesy Galleria Lorcan O'Neill
Friends for decades and showing together for the first time, Smith and Woodman's double solo show includes tapestry, sculpture, ceramics, painting, and drawing.

Installation view of work by Kiki Smith; courtesy Galleria Lorcan O'Neill
Galleria Lorcan O’Neill is located at Vicolo Dei Catinari, 3, 00186 Roma, Italy; for more information please visit the Galleria Lorcan O'Neill website.

More art by Kiki Smith from Magnolia Editions

News, Reviews, and Exhibitions

Kiki Smith - Guide, 2013
Jacquard tapestry, 116 x 75 in. Edition of 10
We were pleased to see that Artforum magazine chose "Kiki Smith: Woven Tales” at Peters Projects in Santa Fe, NM as a Critic’s Pick. “Woven Tales” was the first exhibition collecting all of Kiki Smith’s tapestries to date with Magnolia Editions. Please visit Artforum to read the review.

Bruce Conner - DOUBLE ANGEL, 2004/1991
Jacquard tapestry, State 1: 105 x 115 in. Edition of 6
Meanwhile, following the recent exhibition of tapestries by Bruce Conner at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, work by Conner published by Magnolia Editions appears in "BRUCE CONNER: IT’S ALL TRUE" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

"IT’S ALL TRUE" is the artist’s first monographic museum exhibition in New York, the first large survey of his work in 16 years, and the first complete retrospective of his 50-year career. It brings together over 250 objects, from film and video to painting, assemblage, drawing, prints, photography, photograms, and performance, and runs through October 2, 2016; the show will then travel to San Francisco's MOMA in late October.

Bruce Conner at Magnolia Editions in the early 2000s.
The prolific Colombian artist Santiago Montoya also has work created at Magnolia featured in several exhibitions, including his third solo show at London's Halcyon Gallery and an upcoming show in Oaxaca, Mexico in October; please stay tuned for more details.

Heather Peters and Santiago Montoya in the Magnolia Editions paper mill.

New work in progress by Santiago Montoya.
More art by Santiago Montoya from Halcyon Gallery
More art by Kiki Smith from Magnolia Editions
More art by Bruce Conner from Magnolia Editions

Kiki Smith, Magnolia Editions at Peters Projects this weekend

Kiki Smith - Congregation, 2014
Jacquard tapestry with hand painting and gold leaf, 116 x 76 in. Edition of 10
"Kiki Smith: Woven Tales" opens this Friday, May 13th at Peters Projects in Santa Fe, NM. This spectacular exhibition features all of Smith's tapestries to date (nearly a dozen), hanging together in one room!

There will be an artist talk with Kiki Smith and Donald & Era Farnsworth at Peters Projects on Saturday, May 14th at 11 am.

Kiki Smith - Visitor, 2015
Jacquard tapestry, 116 x 76 in. Edition of 10
Also opening Friday at Peters Projects is a traveling adaptation of the "Magnolia Editions: Innovation and Collaboration" exhibition first presented at the Sonoma County Museum of Art earlier this year.

"Magnolia Editions: Innovation and Collaboration" is curated by Randy Rosenberg and includes work from the last three decades by artists such as Robert Arneson, David Best, Enrique Chagoya, Chuck Close, Bruce Conner, Lewis deSoto, Donald & Era Farnsworth, Guillermo Galindo, Mildred Howard, Robert Hudson, Deborah Oropallo, Mel Ramos, The St. Petersburg Travelers, and Richard Wagener.

Bruce Conner - ANGEL WALL, CANYON DE CHELLEY, 2003/1976
Archival pigmented inkjet on Rives BFK white, 17.75 x 23.5 in. Edition of 10
Peters Projects is located at 1011 Paseo De Peralta, Santa Fe, NM. If you can't make it to the opening, check out the shows on the Peters Projects website!

More work by Kiki Smith from Magnolia Editions

Opening this Saturday, Dec 12 at the Art Museum of Sonoma County

Time-lapse video by Ezequiel Narcisi of the "Innovation and Collaboration" exhibition going up at the Art Museum of Sonoma County

"Magnolia Editions: Innovation and Collaboration," curated by Randy Rosenberg, opens at the Art Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa, CA this Saturday, December 12, 2015 with a public reception from 6-8 pm.

The museum is located at 425 7th St, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 (click for directions). Please note that this museum is in Santa Rosa – not to be confused with the similarly named museum at 551 Broadway in Sonoma.

"Magnolia Editions: Innovation and Collaboration" includes work from the last three decades by artists such as Robert Arneson, Squeak Carnwath, Don Ed Hardy, Enrique Chagoya, Chuck Close, Guy Diehl, Aziz + Cucher, Mildred Howard, William T. Wiley, Mary Hull Webster, Hung Liu, Richard Wagener, Doug Hall, Faisal Abdu'Allah, Kiki Smith, Donald and Era Farnsworth, Inez Storer and Andrew Romanoff, and more, representing a host of media ranging from etchings, collographs, and other more traditional printmaking technologies to Jacquard tapestries, UV-cured acrylic prints on handmade paper fabricated from clothing, and electronic mixed-media sculpture.

Time-lapse video by Ezequiel Narcisi of the "Innovation and Collaboration" exhibition going up at the Art Museum of Sonoma County

Stay tuned for exhibition-related programming in the coming months, including a talk with William T. Wiley and Mary Hull Webster, and a walk-through of Magnolia featuring presentations from Donald Farnsworth and Guy Diehl.

We hope you'll join us at the opening in Santa Rosa this Saturday!

Time-lapse video by Ezequiel Narcisi of the "Innovation and Collaboration" exhibition going up at the Art Museum of Sonoma County

Art Museum of Sonoma County website

SGCI Exhibition and Awards Ceremony

Tapestries by Kiki Smith, left, and Chuck Close published by Magnolia Editions at UC Berkeley's Worth Ryder Gallery
The Southern Graphics Council International, the nation's pre-eminent print organization, held its 42nd annual conference, Bridges: Spanning Tradition, Innovation, and Activism, in the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend. On Saturday night, the SGCI presented a variety of awards to distinguished print artists including Magnolia director Donald Farnsworth, who received an award for Innnovation, and Rupert Garcia, who received a lifetime achievement award.

Rupert Garcia addresses the audience at the SGCI awards ceremony

Kala Institute founders Yuzo Nakano and Archana Horsting

Donald Farnsworth accepts his award for Innovation at the 2014 SGCI awards ceremony
UC Berkeley Continuing Lecturer Randy Hussong also organized an exhibition at the university's Worth Ryder Art Gallery for award recipients. Farnsworth chose to highlight a variety of projects published by Magnolia Editions in the last thirty years. Below, a selection of photos from the opening; please check Facebook for the full set of Farley Gwazda's wonderful pictures from the evening!

George Miyasaki retrospective exhibition at Worth Ryder; photo by Farley Gwazda

Watermark of Frida Kahlo by Rupert Garcia at Worth Ryder Gallery

Craig Nagasawa, Carol Ladewig, Richard Shaw, and Jan Wurm at Worth Ryder; photo by Farley Gwazda

Work by Chuck Close, Enrique Chagoya, Bruce Conner, and Ray Saunders at Worth Ryder Gallery

Richard Shaw, Doug Heinie, and Donald Farnsworth at Worth Ryder; photo by Farley Gwazda

Recent Projects exhibition at Magnolia Editions

Mixed-media work by Mary Hull Webster on Awagami paper, 2014; see more new work at our "Recent Projects" exhibition, open to the public April 1st.
We are pleased to announce an exhibition of new editions and unique works at our recently renovated gallery: "Magnolia Editions: Recent Projects" will be on view beginning April 1st here at our West Oakland warehouse location.

"Magnolia Editions: Recent Projects" features new tapestry works by Chuck Close and Kiki Smith, as well as recent editions by Inez Storer, Guy Diehl, and Masami Teraoka, and new woodcuts by Mel Ramos.

We are also pleased to feature work on handmade Japanese papers from the Awagami Factory in Tokushima, Japan. The Awagami paper mill has a rich history spanning seven generations of traditional washi papermakers; they now produce a variety of exceptional handmade papers, including washi that is specially formulated for inkjet printing.

Craig Anczelowitz and Aya Fujimori of Awagami Factory have generously supplied us with Awagami papers for this exhibition, which have been printed, drawn, painted, and even sewn on by artists including Mildred Howard, Bob Nugent, Mary Hull Webster, and Hung Liu.

"Recent Projects" coincides with the 42nd annual conference of the nation's largest and most prestigious print organization, the Southern Graphics Council Institute, which will be held in the Bay Area this Friday, March 28th.

The SGCI will award Magnolia director Donald Farnsworth an award for Innovation; Farnsworth and other award winners are featured in a show at UC Berkeley's Worth Ryder Institute, and Magnolia Editions will be hosting two tours on March 28th for registered SGCI attendees.

Registered tour attendees will be able to meet Craig and Aya of Awagami Factory at the studio during the tours on the 28th; the works on Awagami paper will remain on view as part of the "Recent Projects" show through April.

We invite you to sign up for the SGCI tours on the 28th, or else please visit us after April 1st during business hours (10 am to 6 pm) here at 2527 Magnolia Street in Oakland to see "Recent Projects" featuring work on Awagami paper.

Awagami Factory on the web

More information about the SGCI conference

Kiki Smith review in Artforum

Kiki Smith - Fortune, 2014
Jacquard tapestry with hand painting - 116 x 78 in. Edition of 10
Kiki Smith's show "Wonder" at Pace Gallery has been drawing critical raves, and snapshots of work from the show are popping up all over Twitter.

In particular, Smith's tapestry editions (published by Magnolia Editions) have been receiving favorable attention. Artforum reviewer Paige Bradley selected Smith's "Wonder" show for the magazine's Picks section, writing:

“Wonder,” the title of Kiki Smith’s latest New York exhibition, suitably describes both the excitement in first encountering Smith’s garden of earthly delights and an astonished curiosity at their craft-intensive processes. [...]

Three nearly ten-foot-long tapestries, all 2014, make the grandest gesture in the exhibition. Portraying almost Edenic scenes of a nude girl and a fawn, as in Congregation, or spiderwebs flecked with gold and silver leaf among shooting plants in Spinners, the medium is dusted off and made contemporary by virtue of the vibrantly abstract, cut-up collage borders. Translated into a crisply precise (and a forerunner of digital technology) Jacquard weave, they reflect the heterogeneous textures of Smith’s drawings and set these extraordinary works apart from any mere nostalgia or worship of antiquated forms.

"Wonder" is on view through March 29th at Pace's 510 West 25th Street location. For more information, please visit the Pace Gallery website. To read more about the process behind Smith's tapestries, check out this interview with the Denton Record-Chronicle.

More art by Kiki Smith at Magnolia Editions

Kiki Smith and Chuck Close at Pace Gallery

Fortune (2014), a new tapestry edition by Kiki Smith published by Magnolia Editions and currently on view at Pace Gallery.
Four new tapestry editions by Kiki Smith will make their debut as part of "Kiki Smith: Wonder," opening at Pace Gallery at 510 West 25th Street in New York this Friday, February 28, 2014. The exhibition, says the gallery, "presents the artist’s investigation of the natural and spiritual worlds through works made of aluminum, bronze, fine silver, textile, stained and hand-blown antique glass, and paint."

Spinners (2014), a new tapestry edition by Kiki Smith published by Magnolia Editions and currently on view at Pace Gallery.

Detail from Spinners (2014)
Several works in the show refer to the transition from winter to spring via the motif of hoarfrost, the natural crystallization of water vapor, which appears throughout "Wonder" in various forms ranging from silver and stainless steel sculptures (up to 13 feet in size!) to the eponymous tapestry edition Hoarfrost.

The artist was still putting the finishing touches on her new tapestries by hand as the show was being installed; those lucky enough to attend the opening were the first to see these editions.

Kiki Smith adds hand-painted details to tapestries at Pace Gallery; photo by Donald Farnsworth.

Kiki Smith adds hand-painted details to tapestries at Pace Gallery; photo by Donald Farnsworth.
"Kiki Smith: Wonder" is the artist’s first major New York gallery show in four years and marks the twentieth anniversary of Smith’s first solo exhibition at the Pace Gallery.

Congregation (2014), a new tapestry edition by Kiki Smith published by Magnolia Editions and currently on view at Pace Gallery.
Opening the same night and running concurrently (through March 29) at Pace's 534 West 25th Street location around the corner, "Chuck Close: Nudes 1967-2014" presents a survey of Close's Polaroids and daguerreotypes of friends and strangers in the buff, as well as the 10 by 21 foot Big Nude, a 1967 painting on loan from a private collection and never before exhibited publicly in New York.

For more details on both shows, please visit Pace Gallery's website.

More art by Kiki Smith at Magnolia Editions

More art by Chuck Close at Magnolia Editions