Shinique Smith, USA, 1971, Torque, 2024, printed and hand-painted fabrics, found objects, ribbon, rope, and sound, various dimensions. Commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. © Shinique Smith/SAS Studio LLC.
Shinique Smith: Torque
Beginning this summer, guests will be welcomed into the Indianapolis Museum of Art by a newly commissioned piece from artist Shinique Smith. Smith’s multi-sensory installation will be suspended in the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion and will combine banners of printed and painted textiles, found objects, and the sounds of racing, speed and motion. Using her signature calligraphic and gestural style, this site-specific piece underscores Smith’s wonder at the depth and breadth of Indianapolis’s racing history, and the fashions and patterns surrounding speedways and pathways to freedom. Torque is inspired by the city’s central role in the world of motorsports while acknowledging the history of segregation in racing on the 100th anniversary of the Gold and Glory Sweepstakes at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
About shinique smith
Shinique Smith is known for her monumental fabric sculptures and abstract paintings of calligraphy and collage. For twenty years, Smith has gleaned visual poetry from clothing, fabric and calligraphy, using them as tools to convey memory, emotion and cultural connections. Born 1971, Smith has received awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Anonymous Was a Woman and the American Academy of Arts and Letters among others. Her work has also been exhibited and collected by public institutions such as the Denver Art Museum, the Guggenheim; LACMA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Museum of Women in the Arts; The Ringling Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Whitney.