roswell artist-in-residence program
& the
 roswell museum and art center

present in the Marshall Gallery

DEBRA 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 & Art Center

Release of Time #3
pieced vintage silk, 27" x 22" 2010

Debra Smith was raised in Hannibal, Missouri and currently resides in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute with a B.F.A in textiles and later received an Associate Degree in Applied Science from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She recently returned to the Midwest after almost living a decade in Brooklyn, New York.

Smith has had resent solo exhibitions at and is represented by: Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, MO., Julie Saul Gallery, New York City & Olson-Larsen Gallery,West Des Moines, Iowa

http://www.Debramsmith.com

Release of Time #4
pieced vintage silk, 27" x 22", 2010

Release of Time#2
pieced vintage silk, 27" x 22", 2010

Studio View

Memory Trace
pieced vintage silk, 23 x 18" , 2009

OTHER RECENT EXHIBITIONS