Strings /
Things
Circles
&OO’s
About
___BIO___
Lauren Ryan Smith is a Hudson Valley based artist born in Queens. She earned a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (2010) and has attended several residencies including Studios at MASS MoCA, The Wassaic Project, The Vermont Studio Center, ChaNorth, and the Contemporary Arts Center in Woodside, receiving several merit based awards. In 2016, Smith worked as the Program Coordinator for ChaNorth, establishing their visiting artist and curator program. Smith had her first solo exhibition in 2017 at the historic Jefferson Market Library in New York’s West Village. She has exhibited throughout the east coast and abroad including Cuchifritos Gallery (NYC), The Tibet House (NYC), Room 83 Spring (Boston), Trestle Projects (Brooklyn), BRIC House (Brooklyn), ArticulateUpstairs (Sydney AU) and the Cementa Arts Festival (Kandos AU).
Lauren Ryan Smith is a Hudson Valley based artist born in Queens. She earned a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (2010) and has attended several residencies including Studios at MASS MoCA, The Wassaic Project, The Vermont Studio Center, ChaNorth, and the Contemporary Arts Center in Woodside, receiving several merit based awards. In 2016, Smith worked as the Program Coordinator for ChaNorth, establishing their visiting artist and curator program. Smith had her first solo exhibition in 2017 at the historic Jefferson Market Library in New York’s West Village. She has exhibited throughout the east coast and abroad including Cuchifritos Gallery (NYC), The Tibet House (NYC), Room 83 Spring (Boston), Trestle Projects (Brooklyn), BRIC House (Brooklyn), ArticulateUpstairs (Sydney AU) and the Cementa Arts Festival (Kandos AU).
___PRACTICE___
My mantra is a circle. A cyclical movement and universal form. Hypnotic and calming, I make gestural drawings and paintings of dots and circles on raw canvas and paper using an array of media. These drawings are a repeated meditation observing minute variations in a personal sense of pace. Mapped out to the size of my wingspan, I record the markings like an exploratory science project. The dancing dots exist in a spacelessness that defies gravity. Held in the vastness of the mind’s eye.
In addition to painting and drawing, I create sculptures with clay and rope. These sculptures hang downward, pulled by the literal force of weight and gravity. The rope’s line navigates the space like a doodle; clinging to the wall and dribbling to the floor. Bulbous pearl beads are sculpted from clay neatly smoothed in the palms of my hand. The clay masses hang delicately and intentionally, dictating the shape the linear form takes. The strings meld with the (back)ground, bringing your gaze through an intertwined journey. Their mutable nature suspended in stillness, revealing the before, the after, the during and all the awkward in betweenness.
My mantra is a circle. A cyclical movement and universal form. Hypnotic and calming, I make gestural drawings and paintings of dots and circles on raw canvas and paper using an array of media. These drawings are a repeated meditation observing minute variations in a personal sense of pace. Mapped out to the size of my wingspan, I record the markings like an exploratory science project. The dancing dots exist in a spacelessness that defies gravity. Held in the vastness of the mind’s eye.
In addition to painting and drawing, I create sculptures with clay and rope. These sculptures hang downward, pulled by the literal force of weight and gravity. The rope’s line navigates the space like a doodle; clinging to the wall and dribbling to the floor. Bulbous pearl beads are sculpted from clay neatly smoothed in the palms of my hand. The clay masses hang delicately and intentionally, dictating the shape the linear form takes. The strings meld with the (back)ground, bringing your gaze through an intertwined journey. Their mutable nature suspended in stillness, revealing the before, the after, the during and all the awkward in betweenness.