Artist

Cauleen Smith

born Riverside, CA 1967
The artist Cauleen Smith sits in a chair in a pink top and green pants
Born
Riverside, California, United States
Active in
  • Los Angeles, California, United States
Biography

Cauleen Smith is a filmmaker and artist. With a BA in cinema from San Francisco State University (1991) and an MFA in filmmaking from the University of California-Los Angeles (1998), her interdisciplinary work expands from histories and practices of experimental film, including structuralism, Third World cinema, and science fiction. Through immersive installations, moving-image works, sculpted objects, and textiles, she engages with non-Western cosmologies, Afro-diasporic histories, Black cultural icons, real and speculative utopias, and, in her words, “the everyday possibilities of the imagination.”

Her first feature film, Drylongso, garnered acclaim at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and, in 2023, received a 4K restoration and rerelease by the Criterion Collection. From the mid-2000s, Smith increasingly presented in contemporary art contexts, where short films and videos, sequential screens, and expanded installations could enwrap visitors in her world-building projects. Interrelated bodies of works have been inspired by post-Katrina New Orleans; Afrofuturist musician Sun Ra; and a bookshelf of Black feminist literature, to name a few. In a 2020 interview, she observed, “Over time, the desire to see certain kinds of images has been replaced by a desire to communicate with the audience in a particular way. I used to be very focused on producing images or stories that I wanted to see, and now, I’m also trying to construct the films in a way that invites the viewer to understand how images are working on them.”

In addition to appearing in many group exhibitions, she has had solo exhibitions at MASS MoCA, Philadelphia’s Institute of Contemporary Art, and LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art, among others. Smith has received numerous grants and awards, including a Heinz Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her films screen internationally, and her works are in public collections around the world, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Works by this artist (2 items)

Kota Ezawa, LYAM 3D, 2008, digital animation, color, silent; 04:00 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible through Deaccession Funds, 2010.23, © 2008, Kota Ezawa
LYAM 3D
Date2008
digital animation, color, silent; 04:00 minutes
Not on view
Kota Ezawa, Choco Drink TV, 2012, mixed media, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 2013.35, © 2012, Kota Ezawa
Choco Drink TV
Date2012
mixed media
Not on view

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      On Wednesday, September 13, 2023, the Smithsonian American Art Museum hosted an artist talk with interdisciplinary artist Cauleen Smith. Smith explores African American identity through her work, particularly in films such as Sojourner, featured in SAAM’s exhibition Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies. She describes her work as a reflection on “the everyday possibilities of the imagination,” drawing on poetry, Afrofuturism, science fiction, and tactics of experimental film to conjure alternative narratives and what the artist has called “a cornucopia of future histories.”
       
      This program was presented both in person and online as part of SAAM’s annual Clarice Smith Distinguished Lectures in American Art series, which highlights excellence and innovation in American art with outstanding artists, critics, and scholars.

      Exhibitions

      Media - 2020.54.1 - SAAM-2020.54.1_2 - 139600
      Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies
      June 23, 2023January 28, 2024
      Musical Thinking explores the powerful resonances between recent video art and popular music.

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