Alexandria Smith

My characters embody multiple states of being as manifestations of hybridity and duality that simultaneously challenge heteronormative gender roles, allude to a divided self, and underscore the complex realities of humanity.
—Alexandria Smith

Gagosian is pleased to present Pretend Gravitas and Dream Aborted Givens, an exhibition of new works by Alexandria Smith at its Park & 75 location. Organized by Antwaun Sargent, this is Smith’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.

In Pretend Gravitas and Dream Aborted Givens, Smith continues her investigation of selfhood alongside the confidences, contradictions, and uncertainties of the queer Black femme body through allegorical assemblage paintings and collage drawings housed in the artist’s custom frames.

Smith’s mixed-media works begin with drawings, which she develops intuitively within an ever-evolving personal cosmology. Atop colorful arrangements of bold shapes, she layers sculpted elements of painted wood and polymer clay that emerge beyond the picture plane, inspired by the pioneering assemblage artist Betye Saar, Black womanist literature, science fiction, and album art of the 1960s and ’70s.