Kiki Smith

The extraordinary sculptor, printmaker and photographer Kiki Smith will be in Seattle for the opening of her new show at the Henry Art Gallery. Smith entered the art world as a sculptor in the late 1970s, creating works of unsettling beauty which often showed women's bodies in various states of distress. One powerful series of pieces, made of bronze and forged steel, featured a woman with her skin removed to show bare muscle tissue, yet her face, breasts and belly remained smooth. In the 1980's Smith experimented primarily with print making, most famously experimenting with screenprinted images of organs and body parts on clothing, posters and public walls. For the last 30 years, the artist has bounded from sculpture, to prints, to video presentations to installations, always creating a powerfully unsettling sense of intimacy that provoke political and social unease.

The show at the Henry, titled "I Myself Have Seen It: Photography & Kiki Smith" opens on March 6. The very unusual show consists of both Smith's own photographic works, alongside photographic images from Smith's personal collection. The exhibition features Smith's snapshots, video collaborations, computer-based images and hand-made composites, juxtaposed against such photographic treasures as 19th-century motion studies by Eadweard Muybridge.

Smith opens the show with an introductory lecture on March 4th. Tickets are available now through Brown Paper Tickets." I Myself Have Seen It" runs until August 15, 2010.