From the beginning, reflection on human existence has been the focus of work by artist Kiki Smith, who was born in Nuremberg in 1954 and now lives in New York. Her radical portrayals of the human body – vulnerable, transient, at the mercy of biological processes – made her an international name in the late eighties. She turned the human body inside out, revealing blood, sperm or tears. In recent years, she has also found important stimuli in literature such as stories by Lewis Carroll and the Brothers Grimm. Starting from there, she consolidates the narrative aspect of her works still more – although this was unmistakeable at quite an early stage. Thematically, the current exhibition Her Home encompasses a woman's life from birth to death. Setting out from the historical perspective of domestic life as it is deep-rooted in Protestant New England and using rich metaphor Kiki Smith develops a range of lifestyles for women outside of marriage, including creative woman as the prototype of the artist per se. These ideas are expressed in numerous artistic genres and materials: sculptures made of porcelain, plaster, aluminium and bronze alternate with large-format drawings, prints, photographs and videos. However, the exhibition centres on the extensive glass works that the artist produced recently at the Mayersche Hofkunstanstalt in Munich. After her major retrospective exhibition A Gathering 1980-2005, which toured five American museums (2006-07), Kiki Smith has created a majority of new works for this exhibition in the Kunsthalle Nürnberg.
A comprehensive catalogue (168 pages, Kerber Verlag, 24,- Euro, during the exhibition) has been published for the exhibition, which was prepared in cooperation with the Museum Haus Esters in Krefeld and will be shown subsequently at the Fondación Miró in Barcelona.

Picture credits:

Search, 2008
Aluminum cast, white and yellow gold leaf Photograph: Volker Döhne

Bouquet, 2007
Ink on nepal paper and silk tissue with lithographic crayon
Untitled (Oil Flowers), 2008
Oil paint on mouth blown clear antique glass, white and yellow gold leaf
Installation view
Photograph: Volker Döhne

Heute, 2008
Wood, lamp glass
Photograph: Volker Döhne

Courtesy Kiki Smith und Pace Wildenstein, New York und Galerie Barbara Gross, München