SABLE ELYSE SMITH
BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1986, Los Angeles, CA.
Lives and works in New York, NY
Education:
MFA, Parsons, The New School for Design, NY, 2013
BA, Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, GA, 2011
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2023
“FAIR GROUNDS,” Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA, September 9 – October 21, 2023
2022
“Tithe,” JTT, New York, NY, September 7 – October 21, 2022
2019
“or the song spilling out,” Carlos / Ishikawa, London, UK, November 8 – December 14, 2019
2018
“BOLO: Be on (the) lookout,” JTT, New York, NY, October 28 – December 16, 2018
“Ordinary Violence,” Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, August 17, 2018 – January 27, 2019; catalogue
“Sable E. Smith,” CONDO: JTT hosted by greengrassi and Corvi-Mora, London, UK, January 13 – February 10, 2018
“How We Tell stories to Children,” Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA, January 11 – February 4, 2018
2017
“Ordinary Violence,” Queens Museum, Queens, NY, September 17, 2017 – February 18, 2018
“and then the street lights–like a warning bell,” Assembly (Recess), Brooklyn, NY, June 23 – September 1, 2017
2015
“Blue is Ubiquitous and Forbidden,” SOHO20 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, November 12 – December 21, 2015
Collaborative Projects:
2019
“Mirror/Echo/Tilt,” New Museum, New York, NY (with Melanie Crean and Shaun Leonardo), June 18 – October 6, 2019; catalogue
Selected Group Exhibitions and Screenings:
2024
“Burning Down the House: Rethinking Family,” Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland, June 1 – September 8, 2024
“Seeing Through Stone,” San José Museum of Art, San José, CA, April 26, 2024 – January 5, 2025
2023
“Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, October 20, 2023 – April 7, 2024; catalogue
"Flesh & Flowers, Made in America," curated by Lauren Taschen, Paris, France, October 15, 2023 – January 19, 2024
“Playscape,” JTT, New York, NY, June 29 – August 11, 2023
“Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation,” Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX, March 12 – July 9, 2023; travels to Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane, New Orleans, LA, August 17 – December 8, 2023; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA, February 16 – July 14, 2024; Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA, August 16 – December 1, 2024
“Not For Sale,” NXTHVN, New Haven, CT, March 4 – May 14, 2023
Wa Na Wari, Seattle, WA, January 13 – April 16, 2023
2022
“To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood,” Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, October 6, 2022 – February 26, 2023; catalogue
“Stars Don’t Stand Still in the Sky: A Tribute to Lawrence Weiner,” Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA, September 15 – October 22, 2022
“The Milk of Dreams,” curated by Cecilia Alemani, 59th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, April 23 – November 27, 2022; catalogue
“Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept,” curated by David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, April 6 – September 5, 2022; catalogue
“Not Only Will I Stare,” curated by Dr. Simone Browne, Art Galleries at Black Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, February 3 – May 21, 2022
“This Tender, Fragile Thing,” Jack Shainman Gallery, The School, Kinderhook, NY, January 15 – April 30, 2022
2021
“Closer to Life: Drawings and Works on Paper in the Marieluise Hessel Collection,” Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, June 26 – October 17, 2021, catalogue
“Just Above My Head,” JTT, New York, NY, May 1 – June 11, 2021
“Wild Frictions: The Politics and Poetics of Interruption,” curated by by Amara Antilla and guest curator Sandra Teitge, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, April 9 – September 19, 2021
“Off the Record,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, April 2 – September 27, 2021
“Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America,” conceived by Okwui Enwezor with curatorial support from Naomi Beckwith, Massimiliano Gioni, Glenn Ligon, and Mark Nash New Museum, New York, NY, February 16 – June 6, 2021; catalogue
“Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment,” curated by Lucy I. Zimmerman, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH, January 30 – August 15, 2021
2020
“Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” organized by Dr. Nicole R. Fleetwood, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY, September 17, 2020 – April 5, 2021; traveled to Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, Birmingham, AL, September 17 – December 11, 2021; Cohen Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI, September 16 – December 18, 2022; New York Public Library, New York, NY, May 1, 2023 – December 4, 2023; catalogue
“SI ONSITE,” Swiss Institute, New York, NY, Fall 2020
“Out of Place: A Feminist Look at the Collection,” Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, January 24, 2020 – January 3, 2021
2019
“On Refusal: Representation & Resistance in Contemporary American Art,” MAC Belfast, Belfast, UK, October 25, 2019 – January 19, 2020
“Great Force,” curated by Amber Esseiva, ICA VCU, Richmond, VA, October 5, 2019 – January 5, 2020; catalogue
“Young Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art,” curated by Antwaun Sargent and Matt Wycoff, OSilas Gallery at Concordia College, Bronxville, New York, September 26 – December 9, 2019; travels to Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY, February 8 – December 31, 2020; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX, February 12 – June 13, 2021; Gallery 300 at the University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, September 3 – December 4, 2021; Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, February 1 – May 27, 2022; The Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, July – December 2022; catalogue
“Catalyst: Art and Social Justice,” Gracie Mansion Conservancy, New York, NY, February 20, 2020 – August 29, 2021
“Colored People Time: Banal Presents,” ICA Philadelphia, PA, February 1 – March 31, 2019; traveled to MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA, February 7 – July 19, 2020; catalogue
"Poetry Is Not a Luxury,” Center for Book Arts, New York, NY, July 19 – September 21, 2019; catalogue
“The Smiths,” Marlborough, London, UK, July 3 – August 2, 2019
“MOOD l Studio Museum Artists in Residence 2018 - 19,” MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY, June 9 – September 8, 2019
“Radical Reading Room," Studio Museum 127, Harlem, NY, May 3 – October 27, 2019
“No One Is Innocent,” MoMA PS1, Queens, NY (screening), April 7, 2019
“The Land I Live In,” Matthew Brown Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, March 23 – May 4, 2019
2018
“Moving Body, Moving Study,” Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY, September 13, 2018 – January 6, 2019
“Walls Turned Sideways: Artists Confront the Justice System,” Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX, August 25, 2018 – January 6, 2019; travels to Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA, January 23 — April 19, 2020; catalogue
“Production Values,” Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA, July 17, 2018 (screening)
“SITElines.2018: Casa tomada,” SITE Sante Fe, Sante Fe, NM, August 3, 2018 – January 6, 2019; catalogue
“Agora,” High Line, New York, NY, April 2018 – March 2019; catalogue
“Prison Nation,” curated by Nicole R. Fleetwood, Aperture, New York, NY, February 7 – March 8, 2018; travels to Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, OH, October 2018 – January 21, 2019; Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, FL, February 5 – March 2, 2019; Davis Museum Wellesley College, Massachusetts, NE, February 1 – June 5, 2022
2017
“Glass Ceiling: Art of Resilience and Fragility,” UrbanGlass, Brooklyn, NY, November 8, 2017 – January 13, 2018
“Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon,” curated by Johanna Burton, New Museum, New York, NY, September 27, 2017 – January 21, 2018; catalogue
“Dear watchers in the shadows,” The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, September 24, 2017 (screening)
“Other Romances,” Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY, September 10 – October 29, 2017
“Elaine, let’s get the hell out of here,” curated by Ashton Cooper, Nichelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY, June 29 – August 18, 2017
“Fictions,” curated by Connie H. Choi and Hallie Ringle, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, September 14, 2017 – January 15, 2018; catalogue
“UPTOWN: nasty women / bad hombres,” curated by Rocio Aranda, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, June 13 – November 5, 2017
“Memory is a Tough Place,” curated by Macushla Robinson, Kellen Gallery at The New School, New York, NY, 2017
“Watchlist,” curated by Goedele Bartholomeeusen and Kat Herriman, SIGNAL, Brooklyn, NY, April 8 – May 7, 2017
“Your Body is a Battleground: VOLTA 2017,” curated by Wendy Vogel VOLTA NY, New York, NY, March 1 – 5, 2017
“The Exposed Suture,” curated by Natasha Marie Llorens, Rond-Point Projects, Marseille, France, February 16 – March 4, 2017
“Who Gets To Look,” curated by Virginia Arce, UC Irvine Galleries, Irvine, CA, January 14 – February 11, 2017
“FAWC Visual Arts Fellows Exhibition," Provincetown Art Association & Museum, Provincetown, MA, 2017
“Without a Body,” curated by SIGNAL, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY, January 6 – February 4, 2017
2016
“Emerging Arts Fellowship Exhibition 2016,” Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY, September 25, 2016 – March 13, 2017
“With Liberty and (in)Justice For All?,” Gateway Project Spaces, Newark, NJ, September 7 – October 7, 2016
“Partner in Crime,” Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, September 6 – December 16, 2016
“Focus on the Funk: Journeys,” presented by Serpentine Galleries, Birkbeck Cinema, London, UK, May 20 – 22, 2016 (screening)
“Over the Wall,” Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA, April 22 – May 14, 2016
“Comrade What is Your Visual Bond?, Sunday Sessions: Screening,” MoMA PS1, New York, NY, February 7, 2016 (screening)
“History As I Know It,” On the Ground Floor Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, January 16 – February 6, 2016
“History As I Know It,” IMPeRFeCT Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, January 16 – February 6, 2016
2015
“Dis Place,” Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, NY, October 17, 2015 – January 17, 2016
“La Lucha II Dom & Haiti Visions of Tomorrow,” Andrew Freedman Home, Bronx, NY, October 9 – November 6, 2015
“Inherited,” curated by Hallie Ringle, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY, July 9, 2015
“Consequential Translations,” Centro Cultural de Espana, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, May 8 – June 20, 2015
“La Lucha,” Rio Penthouse Gallery, New York, NY, February 6 – 27, 2015
“RESPOND,” Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY, January 17 – February 22, 2015
2014
“Yeah That’s What She Said," Specials On C, New York, NY, March 30, 2014 (Screening)
2013
“Gaze Series #5: Transgressions,” Artist Television Access, San Francisco, CA, August 24, 2013 (screening)
“Contemporary Temporary Sound Works And Music,” organized by Daniel Neuman, Eyebeam, New York, NY, 2013
“Present Futures,” The Mandrake, Los Angeles, CA, 2013 (screening)
2012
“Silencing The Self,” 25 East Gallery, New York, NY, 2012
Performances and Readings:
2024
“Studio Sound: Sable Elyse Smith,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, June – July 2024
2022
“Belly of the Wail: A Score and Duets,” Swiss Institute, New York, NY, February 26, 2022
2018
“Performing Fictions,” The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, January 15, 2018
2017
“LANDSCAPES & PLAYGROUNDS Book Launch,” Recess Assembly, Brooklyn, NY, August 3, 2017
2016
“Artist Love Poets,” The Poetry Project, New York, NY, November 11, 2016
"The Listening Party,” MoMA Pop Rally, New York, NY, September 10, 2016
“Sable Elyse Smith & Camel Collective,” The Poetry Project, New York, NY, March 11, 2016
“Reading & Launch Selfish Magazine: Issue 3,” Over the Eight, Brooklyn, NY, 2016
2015
“Mirror/Echo/Tilt,” Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, New York, NY, December 11, 2015
“Reading: Blue is Ubiquitous and Forbidden,” SOHO20 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, December 10, 2015
“Sifting,” Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, NY, October 29, 2015
“AUNTSforcamera Artist-Devised Tour,” New Museum, New York, NY, February 14, 2015
2014
“Heart, Voice, Song: Three Meeting Performances,” Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY, 2014
“Through Body, Through Earth, Through Speech,” Fallow Time: Movement Research Festival, Queens Museum, New York, NY, May 27, 2014
2013
“Dissident Futures Art and Ideas Festival,” Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, November 23, 2013
“Through Body, Through Earth, Through Speech,” Eyebeam, New York, NY, 2013
“Performative Reading Event for Daily Violence with Huong Ngo,” The Window at 125, New York, NY, 2013
2012
“The Future is Fantastic (If You Want It),” New Museum, New York, NY, November 9, 2012
Curatorial Projects:
2022
“Beneath Tongues,” Swiss Institute, New York, NY, January 21 – April 17, 2022
2020
“SI ONLINE: FEAR TOUCH POLICE,” Swiss Institute, New York, NY, October 26, 2020 – April 17, 2022
2019
“C.R.E.A.M.,” presented by High Line Art, The Kitchen, New York, NY, January 26, 2019
Talks and Lectures:
2019
“Melanie Crean, Shaun Leonardo, and Sable Elyse Smith in Conversation with Nicole R. Fleetwood,” New Museum, New York, NY, July 25, 2019
2017
“Public Art and Prison Reform,” Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA, April 20, 2017
2016
“Why Explicit?: Panel with Lorraine O’Grady, Sondra Perry, and Sable Elyse Smith,” Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, New York, NY, October 8, 2016
“Afrofuturism Conference 2016: #BlackIsViral, Panel: Hyper Visibility of the Black Image with Caitlin Cherry & Devin Kenny,” The New School, New York, NY, 2016
"In Conversation with Shaun Leonardo," BRIC, Brooklyn, NY, March 23, 2016
“Comrade What is Your Visual Bond? Sunday Sessions: Panel,” MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY, February 7, 2016
2015
“New Museum R&D Seminar: Persona, Selected Participant,” New Museum, New York, NY, December 14, 2015
“Dis Place: Artist Talk,” Moderated by Jessica Lynne, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, NY, November 7, 2015
“I Can’t Breath: Conversation w/ Shaun Leonardo,” Moderated by Kimberly Drew, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY, August 14, 2015
2014
“In Conversation with Ayana Jackson and Monique Long,” Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York, NY, 2014
“Subtleties of Resistance,” In dialogue with Nicole Fleetwood, Free University at Kara Walker’s “A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar Baby,” New York, NY, 2014
2013
“Culture Push Honorary Fellow: Reading & Writing Group,” as a member of the Fantastic Futures collective, 2013
"iLab Residency: Through Body, Through Earth, Through Speech,” as a member of the Fantastic Futures collective, New York, NY, 2013
2012
"It Is All Here. Memories Can’t Wait,” Panel Participant, The International Center for Photography, New York, NY, December 14, 2012
2011
“History, Earth, Flesh," Panel Participant at the Liberal Arts Symposium, Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, GA, April 3, 2011
Grants and Fellowships:
2023
Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship
2018
Studio Museum in Harlem Artist in Residence
2017
New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Program in Film and Media
2016
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant
Queens Museum/Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists
Recess Art Critical Writing Fellow
Socrates Sculpture Park Emerging Artist Fellowship
Creative Capital Fellow
2015
Art Matters Foundation

Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture
Public Collections:
The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI
Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
ICA Miami, Miami, FL
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The New School, New York, NY
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Aeromoto Library, Mexico City, MX
Center for Book Arts, New York, NY
Everygreen State College Library, Olympia, WA
Free Black Women’s Library, New York, NY
MoMA Library, New York, NY
Princeton University Library, Princeton, NJ
Rare Book and Manuscript LIbrary, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Ubana and
Champaign, IL
SFMOMA Library, San Francisco, CA
Smithsonian Libraries, Washington D.C.