Home Artist Programs Supported Artists Sable Smith

Sable Smith

New Jersey

“Landscape VI” is an installation of white neon words block-justified in 9 rows on a wide white wall. The words read “ We seem to all be standing here wrapped around this fist tonight Licked knuckles begging: it has to be the same old shit again One street light standing like 36 Tyrones on top of each other’s shoulders. A link-n-log connection–meaning just sitting there in each other’s slots yet empty Slack cotton T-shirts slipping down around the collar bone I’m not even near there myself but still somehow trying to shoulder it Push that shit up just a little longer Raising my arms up over my head and panting”.

Landscape VI

2022

“Gravity” is a wall sculpture formed of 1:1 scale replicas of round prison visiting room stools bolted to bars. The stools are ordered in two lines to form a cross.

Gravity

2022

“Landscape V” is an installation of block-justified white neon words in 3 rows, with a neon blue line below the final line, on a wide white wall. The words read “Someone smashed the policeman’s radio And finally silence A black language infinitely And blue in a decade where it finally means sky”.

Landscape V

2020

“PIVOT I” is a sculptural installation in a white room. In the foreground, 6 1:1 scale replicas of prison visiting room stools with blue tops and black stems are fused together at the base like a large pronged metal Jack toy. In the background, a tv screen hangs from the ceiling displaying an image of a vehicle burning on a street at night.

PIVOT I

2019

Artworks shown are selected from works submitted by the artist in their grant or residency application. All works are copyright of the artist or artist’s estate.

About Sable Smith

Sable Smith leans against a column in an art studio with paintings hanging behind her. She is a Black woman with medium skin tone, wearing glasses and a hat that reads "Artists Make New York" over thin braids. She wears a collared white shirt, and her hands are in the pockets of her black slacks.
Photo by Tommy Kha

Sable Smith's work has been featured at MoMA Ps1, New Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, JTT gallery, and numerous others. Smith has received awards from Creative Capital, Fine Arts Work Center, the Queens Museum, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Rema Hort Mann Foundation, the Franklin Furnace Fund, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, and Art Matters. She recently participated in the 2022 Whitney Biennial and the 59th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, also in 2022. Smith is currently Assistant Professor of Visual Art at Columbia University.

Program Participation

Joan Mitchell Fellowship, 2023

“ I make work that complicates our understanding of prison and how we name, identify, and locate violence. What it is, when it is, and what it can be. A type of violence that is largely unseen, and potentially imperceptible. These are the things that my practice prioritizes bringing to the surface.”