Michael Smith (performance artist)

For other people named Michael Smith, see Michael Smith (disambiguation).
Michael Smith
Born (1951-03-08) March 8, 1951 (age 73)
Chicago, Illinois
NationalityAmerican
EducationColorado College, Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program
Known forVideo, installation art, performance, drawing
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship, Alpert Awards in the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
Websitehttps://michaelsmithartist.com
http://www.mikes-world.org
Michael Smith, Imagine the View from Here!, Installation view, Museo Jumex, Mexico City, 2018.

Michael Smith (born 1951) is an American artist known for his performance, video and installation works.[1][2][3] He emerged in the mid-1970s at a time when performance and narrative-based art was beginning to claim space in contemporary art.[4][5] Included among the Pictures Generation artists, he also appropriated pop culture, using television conventions rather than tropes from static media.[6][7] Since 1979, much of Smith's work has centered on an Everyman character, "Mike," that he has portrayed in various domestic, entrepreneurial and artistic endeavors.[8][9][10][11] Writers have described his videos and immersive installations as "poker-faced parodies"[6] that sit on the edge between art and entertainment, examining ideas, cultural shifts and absurdities involving the American dream, consumerism, the art world, and aging.[12][13] Village Voice critic Jerry Saltz called Smith "a consummate explorer of the land of the loser … limning a fine line between reality and satire [in] a genre sometimes called installation verité."[14]

Smith's early performances took place at avant-garde venues like The Kitchen, Franklin Furnace and Artists Space and downtown clubs such as CBGB and Mudd Club.[15][6][16] He eventually performed in other, more mainstream clubs and institutions, such as The Bottom Line, Carolines, the Whitney Museum and Museum of Modern Art, and produced videos for Saturday Night Live and PBS and a comedy special for Cinemax.[2][12][17][18][19] In later years, he has exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and Tate Modern, among others.[7][20][3] In 2007–8, a retrospective, "Mike's World," was presented at the Blanton Museum of Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia.[21][1][10] Smith has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation in addition to a 1985 Guggenheim Fellowship and an Alpert Award in Visual Arts in 2012.[22][23][24]

  1. ^ a b Johnson, Ken. "An Artist’s Concocted World, Starring Himself, Is Too True to Be Real," The New York Times, May 13, 2008. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Holden, Stephen. "A Variety Show, Avant-Garde Style," The New York Times, December 11, 1987, p. C1. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Dickson, Andrew. "Does your nuclear shelter have a bar? Michael Smith on 40 years of mocking America," The Guardian, December 9, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
  4. ^ Joselit, David. "'Mike’s World' and 'Air Kissing,'" Artforum, February 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  5. ^ Hixson, Kathryn. "Michael Smith," artUS, Spring 2008, p. 62–3.
  6. ^ a b c Griffin, Tim. "In Conversation: Dan Graham and Michael Smith," Artforum, May 2004. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  7. ^ a b Lobel, Michael. "The Pictures Generation: Outside the Frame," Artforum, September 2009. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  8. ^ Smith, Roberta. "Michael Smith and Joshua White," The New York Times, March 28, 1997, p. C26. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
  9. ^ Withers, Rachel. "Michael Smith and Joshua White," Artforum, Summer 2002. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  10. ^ a b McClister, Nell. "Mike’s World: Michael Smith and Joshua White (and other collaborators)," Bomb, Oct 1, 2008. Retrieved December 2, 2021.
  11. ^ Castro, Leslie Moody. "Mike’s “Fully Curated Timeshare” — Michael Smith at Museo Jumex," Sightlines, January 23, 2019. Retrieved December 2, 2021.
  12. ^ a b Schaffner Ingrid. Ingrid Schaffner, Institute of Contemporary Art interview with Michael Smith, Herb Alpert Award, March 2012. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
  13. ^ Fox, Dan. "Only the Lonely," Frieze, April 23, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
  14. ^ Saltz, Jerry. "Nailing Failing," ‘’Village Voice’’, December 2001. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  15. ^ Taubin, Amy. "Bringing It Back Home," Artforum, January 16, 2014. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  16. ^ Archives of American Art. "Oral history interview with Michael Smith, 2018 July 30-August 1," Smithsonian Institution, 2018. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
  17. ^ The Museum of Modern Art. Michael Smith, Artists. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
  18. ^ Alemani, Cecilia. "Television Delivers People, Whitney Museum of American Art," Artforum, January 7, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  19. ^ Artforum. "Artists Announced for 2008 Whitney Biennial," November 16, 2007. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  20. ^ Ziolkowski, Thad. "Michael Smith and Joshua White," Artforum, September 1999. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  21. ^ Griffin, Tim. "'Mike's World': Michael Smith & Joshua White (and other collaborators)," Artforum, September 2007. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  22. ^ Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. Michael Smith," Artists, 2007. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
  23. ^ John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. "Michael A. Smith," Fellows. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
  24. ^ The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. Michael Smith, Artists. Retrieved December 1, 2021.