For The Armory Show 2017, David Castillo Gallery presents a solo booth of new works by Shinique Smith, Talismans, created specifically for the show. The artist is inspired by the vast vocabulary of things we consume and discard. Examining the ways in which such objects can resonate on a personal and social scale, Smith pursues the graceful and spiritual qualities in the everyday. In works made from the class of objects we call “belongings,” she combines the intractable geometry and hard thinking that defines urban with the softening, emotionally steeped influence of the worn-down, nostalgic or forgotten, while at the same time questioning the relationships that contemporary societies have with the inanimate and the intimate.

The talismans will manifest as mixed media works on panel and shaped canvases, sculptures for the floor and wall that range in scale from 7 inches to 7 feet and works on paper.  In addition, the sculptural works will introduce the medium of glass, in which the artist has been creating new bodies of work in collaboration with important glass manufacturers. Also proposed is a new, site-specific wall piece, in the vein of those the artist has created at museums and institutions around the world.  The works will use and incorporate materials that include cut and carved wood, fabric, mirror and blown glass, ink and acrylic, clothing, and objects.