About

Artist Statement
My sculptural work supports the idea that we are stewards of nature, we do not have dominion over it. My work embraces an array of found and raw material, natural materials whenever possible, for their resonance. I value this resonance as it reflects the potency of matter in its vast array of forms and degrees of “animation,” which I search to echo in my art. I am most compelled by those experiences of nature that are both powerful and ephemeral, as if there were an exchange of vividness in any encounter that then quickly vanishes except for traces of vitality. Can this be embodied? I work mainly with my hands which mine the interior influences, allowing them to intermingle in all their limitless variations.

Tibetan Buddhism posits that every phenomenon, physical or spiritual, has four aspects: the outer, the inner, the secret, and the ultimately secret. Seeking out this mysterious inner life–the secret of how things function–moves my art forward. The physical and spiritual elide as I search for the corresponding sentience within living things and objects.
My childhood was spent outdoors, in fields and woods where I learned to let go of ordinary habits of looking–to be still and wait–in order to experience the true vividness of nature. A magical complexity of the worlds within worlds of flora and fauna was revealed. I still rely on this practice of slow seeing: a blindness and then vision.

We are at a unique point in our history, one of absences. My work reflects this sense of loss and regret while simultaneously acknowledging awe at the gifts our planet has provided. I wonder if the human species might also disappear, or is this moment one of possibility, in which, finally experiencing a profound sadness for these losses, we at last take ultimate responsibility as caretakers of this planet?

Bio
Rhonda Smith has been immersed in visual study all her life. She graduated from St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, and studied at the School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Cooperativa Mosaicisti, Ravenna Italy. She is currently a member of the Kingston Gallery, Boston, MA, the Pell Lucy Collective/Shim Art Network, and on the board of Transcultural Exchange. Until about seven years ago she was a painter but now has devoted herself to sculpture and installation. Her work incorporates her abiding love of science, the land and water, and the sacred. The idea in science that any dynamic system can be in a state of disequilibrium is an underlying concept in her work and process. Of particular concern now is that our
planet has lost its wild spaces, we are in a continual state of displacement, and too many species have disappeared. She has had many ecology -based one person shows and participated in a large number of group shows, especially concerned with the planet, mapping, earth sciences and loss of habitat. Her work has been seen in Boston, MA, New York, NY, Maine, London, and Tokyo and is in many corporate collections.



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Resume
RHONDA SMITH
rhondasmithartist.com

450 Harrison Avenue, #403, Boston, MA 02118 and Biddeford Pool, ME 04006
Solo and Two Person Exhibitions
2023 Kingston Gallery Project Space, Boston, Madonna of the Woods
2022 Kingston Gallery, Boston, MA, Say I Am You
2021 Kingston Gallery Project Space, Boston, MA, Solastalgia
2019 Anderson Gallery, Bridgewater State University, MA, The Daily Planet
2019 Kingston Gallery, Boston MA, Oh that Beautiful Planet, What Have We Done? 2017 Hampden Gallery, U. of Mass, Amherst, Walking on Rock and Water
2016 Maud Morgan Chandler Gallery, Cambridge, MA, Schemata two person show 2014 Kingston Gallery, Boston, MA, And There Was Matter
1996 Visual Art Gallery, Boston, MA, Excavated Light
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 Brickstore Museum, Kennebunk, ME, Earthly Observations, Artists
Perspectives on Our Climate
2023 Bethune Gallery, NY, NY, Pell Lucy Collective, Luminous Elsewheres
2023 Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA, Pell Lucy Collective, In Praise of Form
2015 University of North Carolina, Asheville, Drawing Discourse, Juror: Val Britton 2013 Fountain Street Fine Art, Framingham, MA, No Limit, Juror: Kathryn Markel 2012 Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA, Fragile Navigation
2012 Iliad Contemporary, New York, NY, Particles + Waves
2012 New England Biolabs, Beverly, MA, New England Biolabs
2010 Schiltkamp Gallery, Clark University, Worcester, MA, Alchemy: Art + Science, curator: Elli Crocker
2001 Mt. Ida College, Newton, MA, Color and Design: Transcending the Boundaries 1999 Somerville Art Museum, Somerville, MA, Survey of Local Contemporary Work
curator Robert Reyes
1999 Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, MA, The Ninth Triennial, Juror: Carl Belz
1988 Atagoyama Gallery, Tokyo
1981 Gallery of the Federation of British Artists, The Mall Galleries, London, England 1979-80 Gallery Monji, Tokyo, Japan
1977 Hananoya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Publications, Interviews, Talks
2023 Madonna of the Woods, artist talk, Kingston Gallery, Boston, MA
2022 “Say I Am You” Lends A Curious Eye to the Inexplicable by Clare Ogden
2021 At Kingston Gallery, Two New Artists Explore Nature’s Beauty and Loss, WBUR the ARTery by Pamela Reynolds
https://www.wbur.org/artery/2021/01/29/kingston-gallery-vaughn-sills-rhonda- smith
2021 Kingston Conversations with Randy Garber
https://www.facebook.com/159211327453862/videos/3901643273221249
2018 Boston Voyager artist profile
2016 Two Local Artists Explore Mapping as Metaphor, CCTV Neighborhood Media 2015 Drawing Discourse, University of NC, Ashville, exhibit catalog
2012 Fragile Navigation, Danforth Art Museum article
2012 Particles + Waves, May 2012 Iliad Contemporary, exhibit catalog
Grant and Residencies
2013 Vermont Studio Center grant and residency

Work in Corporate Collections
BioMed Realty; Cell Signaling; L.A.W., P.A.; Meditech.; Mothercare Services; Tony’s Realty; Zevin Asset Management, and an international technology company

Education
1989,1990 Cooperativa Mosaicisti, Ravenna, Italy 1973-1975 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA 1971-1972 Fordham University, New York, NY
1969-1973 St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, B.A., cum laude, with honors in Fine Arts