RAIR | 2009-10

Debra Smith | Kansas City, MO

Debra Smith approaches her textiles with the sensibilities of a modern painter and seeks to break the stereotypes associated with piecework. Working with vintage fabrics - primarily men’s silk suit lining and kimono - brings an historical and poetic weight to the work even before she begins to meticulously piece together her materials into abstract forms. The masculinity of the suit fabric and the femininity of the silks strike a harmonious balance that’s then thrown off by skewed geometry. Smith received her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and her Associate’s in Applied Science at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Her work has been published in ‘New American Paintings and Textiles Around the World’.

www.debramsmith.com

Roswell Museum and Art Center

Rair exhibition • Debra M. Smith • May 8 - June 20, 2010

Debra M. Smith’s markedly formalist work is created through an intuitive approach. Her work involves the overlapping of vintage silk fabric, primarily deconstructed Japanese kimonos, stitched together to form bold geometric abstractions. She incorporates opaque and transparent fabrics, which create an interplay of masked and obscured areas that add a dimensionality to the work. While seemingly reminiscent of maps and diagrams, these works are not simulations of the external world, but rather result from internal ideas—aesthetic explorations of form, color, and rhythm. Additionally, the historic nature of the fabric incorporates another layer of meaning for Smith—an intangible narrative that disrupts the otherwise formal quality of the work thus bridging an external, almost poetic connection to the past.

Caroline Brooks, Assistant Director, Roswell Museum and Art Center

Debra Smith was born in Kansas City in 1971 and raised in Hannibal, Missouri.

Pursuing her interest in fashion and textiles, Debra Smith studied at the Italian Academy of Fashion & Design; Lorenzo de Medici in Florence Italy before receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute with a major in Fiber in 1993 and an Associate Degree in Applied Science from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2002.

After living in Brooklyn, NY, for over a decade, Smith returned to her native Midwestern roots in 2004. She now lives in Kansas City, where she continues to create art from vintage textiles.

“ I am not a poet or someone who draws, my use of vintage textiles as a medium brings a history, a weight, a poetry to the work before I even begin to cut, sew and piece the work back together.

Allowing the work to intuitively flow thru me, I am breaking all stereotypes associated with textiles, from ideas of craft to that of “women’s work” my pieced images have a strong language that is much more similar to that of painting, poetry & drawing.”

Her work has been shown internationally over the past two decades, including solo & group exhibitions:

Seeking Balance, Markel Fine Art, New York, NY (2020)

Shifting Vision, Puerh, Brooklyn, NY (2020)

40th Anniversary Exhibition, Olson Larsen Gallery, West Des Moines, IA (2019)

Seeking Balance, Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO (2019)

The Thread You Fallow, Daum Museum, Sedalia, MO. (2016)

New American Paintings: Elmhurst Art Museum, Midwest Edition, Elmhurst, IL. (2016)

Rijswijk Textile Biennial, Rijswijk Museum, The Netherlands (2015)

Look & Listen, DUSK, Saint Chamas, France (2015)

Release of Time, Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, Roswell, NM (2012)

In-between Spaces/ New work, Roswell Museum & Art Center, Roswell, NM (2010),

Looking to The Left, Julie Saul Gallery, NYC (2008),

Sense of Presence, Davidson Gallery, Brisbane, Australia (2004)

https://www.debramsmith.com