JTT | Biography

1986	Born, Los Angeles, CA Lives and works in New York, NY

EDUCATION

2013	M.F.A., Parsons, The New School for Design, New York, NY
2011	B.A., Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, GA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022	Tithe, JTT, New York, NY
2019	or the song spilling out, Carlos/Ishikawa, London, UK
2018	BOLO: Be on (the) lookout, JTT, New York, NY Ordinary Violence, Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI How We Tell stories to Children, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA CONDO London, JTT hosted by greengrassi and Corvi-Mora, London, UK
2017	Ordinary Violence, Queens Museum, Queens, NY and then the street lights–like a warning bell, Assembly (Recess), Brooklyn, NY
2015	Blue is Ubiquitous and Forbidden, SOHO20 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND SCREENINGS

2022	Introverse: Allegory Today, 80WSE, New York, NY. Curated by 80WSE Curator Howie Chen and artist Alex Ito Dark Light: Realism in the Age of Post-Truths, Aïshti Foundation, Beirut, LB. Curated by Massimiliano Gioni To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood, ICA Boston, Boston, MA. Organized by Ruth Erickson with Jeffrey De Blois Combinations, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, New York, NY. Curated by Damien Davis and Alaina Simone The Milk of Dreams, 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, IT. Curated by Cecilia Alemani Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. Co-organized by David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards with Gabriel Almeida Baroja and Margaret Kross
2021	Closer to Life: Drawings and Works on Paper in the Marieluise Hessel Collection, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY Wild Frictions: The Politics and Poetics of Interruption, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH. Organized by Amara Antilla and guest curator Sandra Teitge Off the Record, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, New Museum, New York, NY. Conceived by Okwui Enwezor with curatorial support from Naomi Beckwith, Massimiliano Gioni, Glenn Ligon, and Mark Nash Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH. Curated by Lucy I. Zimmerman
2020	Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY. Organized by Dr. Nicole R. Fleetwood. Traveling to Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, Birmingham, AL (2021); National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, OH (2022); David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, Providence, RI (2022) SI ONSITE, Swiss Institute, New York, NY Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY. Curated by Antwaun Sargent and Matt Wycoff Colored People Time: Mundane Futures, Quotidian Pasts, Banal Presents, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA
2019	On Refusal: Representation & Resistance in Contemporary American Art, MAC Belfast, Belfast, IE Great Force, ICA VCU, Richmond, VA. Curated by Amber Esseiva Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, OSilas Gallery, Concordia College, Bronxville, NY Colored People Time: Banal Presents, ICA Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA Poetry Is Not a Luxury, Center for Book Arts, New York, NY. Curateed by Maymanah Farhat The Smiths, Marlborough, London, UK Mirror/Echo/Tilt, New Museum, New York, NY. Collaborative project with Melanie Crean and Shaun Leonardo MOOD l Studio Museum Artists in Residence 2018 - 19, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY. Curated by Legacy Russell and Hallie Ringle with Josephine Graf Radical Reading Room, Studio Museum 127, Harlem, NY No One Is Innocent, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY (screening) The Land That I Live In, Matthew Brown Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2018	Moving Body, Moving Study, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Brooklyn, NY Walls Turned Sideways: Artists Confront the Justice System, CAMH, Houston, TX. This exhibition will travel to Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA Production Values, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA SITElines.2018: Casa Tomada, SITE Santa Fe, Sante Fe, NM (cat.) Agora, High Line, New York, NY (cat.) Prison Nation, Aperture, New York, NY. Curated by Nicole R. Fleetwood. This exhibition will travel to Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, OH, Southeast Museum of Photography 32114, Daytona, FL, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD
2017	Glass Ceiling: Art of Resilience and Fragility, UrbanGlass, Brooklyn, NY Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon, New Museum, New York, NY. Curated by Johanna Burton (cat.) Other Romances, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY 'Elaine, let's get the hell out of here', Nichelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY. Curated by Ashton Cooper Fictions, Studio Museum, New York, NY. Curated by Connie H. Choi and Hallie Ringle (cat.) UPTOWN: nasty women / bad hombres, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY. Curated by Rocio Aranda-Alvarado Memory is a Tough Place, Kellen Gallery at The New School, New York, NY. Curated by Macushla Robinson Watchlist, SIGNAL, Brooklyn, NY. Curated by Goedele Bartholomeeusen and Kat Herriman Your Body is a Battleground: VOLTA 2017, VOLTA NY, New York, NY. Curated by Wendy Vogel The Exposed Suture, Rond-Point Projects, Marseille, FR. Curated by Natasha Marie Llorens Who Gets To Look, UC Irvine Galleries, Irvine, CA. Curated by Virginia Arce FAWC Visual Arts Fellows Exhibition, Provincetown Art Association & Museum, Provincetown, MA Without a Body, Andrea Rosen Gallery 2, New York, NY. Curated by SIGNAL
2016	Emerging Arts Fellowship Exhibition 2016, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY With Liberty and (in)Justice For All?, Gateway Project Spaces, Newark, NJ Partner in Crime, Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University, Newark, NJ Focus on the Funk: Journeys, Serpentine Gallery & Birbeck Cinema, London, UK Over the Wall, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA Comrade What is Your Visual Bond?, Sunday Sessions: Screening, MoMA PS1, New York, NY History As I Know It, On the Ground Floor Gallery, Los Angeles, CA History As I Know It, IMPeRFeCT Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2015	La Lucha II Dom & Haiti Visions of Tomorrow, Andrew Freedman Home, Bronx, NY Dis Place, The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, NY Inherited, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY Consequential Translations, Centro Cultural de Espana, Santo Domingo, DR La Lucha, Rio Penthouse Gallery, New York, NY RESPOND, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
2014	Yeah That’s What She Said, Specials On C, New York, NY
2013	Gaze Series #5: Transgressions, Artist Television Access, San Francisco, CA Contemporary Temporary Sound Works And Music, Eyebeam, New York, NY. Organized by Daniel Neuman Present Futures, The Mandrake, Los Angeles, CA
2012	Silencing The Self, 25 East Gallery, New York, NY

PERFORMANCES AND READINGS

2018	Performing Fictions, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
2017	LANDSCAPES & PLAYGROUNDS Book Launch, Recess Assembly, Brooklyn, NY
2016	Artist Love Poets, The Poetry Project, New York, NY The Listening Party, MoMA Pop Rally, New York, NY Sable Elyse Smith & Camel Collective, The Poetry Project, New York, NY Reading & Launch Selfish Magazine: Issue 3, Over the Eight, Brooklyn, NY
2015	Mirror/Echo/Tilt, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture: New York, New York, NY Reading: Blue is Ubiquitous and Forbidden, SOHO20 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY Sifting, The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, NY AUNTSforcamera Artist-Devised Tour, New Museum, New York, NY
2014	Heart, Voice, Song: Three Meeting Performances, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY Fallow Time: Movement Research Festival: Through Body, Through Earth, Through Speech, Queens Museum, New York, NY
2013	Dissident Futures Art and Ideals Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA Through Body, Through Earth, Through Speech, Eyebeam, New York, NY Performative Reading Event for Daily Violence with Huong Ngo, The Window at 125, New York, NY
2012	The Future is Fantastic (If You Want It), New Museum, New York, NY

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

2022	Fateman, Johanna. Sable Elyse Smith, The New Yorker. September 16. Amadour, Ricky. Don’t Miss These 10 New York Art Shows, Cultured. September 7. Macalister-Smith, Tilly and Harriet Lloyd Smith. New York art exhibitions 2022: a guide, Wallpaper. September 8. Cotter, Holland. What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries Right Now, The New York Times. March 31. Sutton, Benjamin. The next Whitney Biennial’s 63 participating artists and collectives revealed*, The Art Newspaper. January 25.
2021	Migan, Darla. Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, The Brooklyn Rail. March. Tillet, Salamishah. How the Studio Museum in Harlem Transformed the Art World Forever, Harper’s Bazaar. February 26.
2020	Mirzoeff, Nick. Watching Whiteness Shift to Blue Via Nationalist Aesthetics, Hyperallergic. November 30, 2020. Fateman, Johanna. In The Museums: Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, The New Yorker. October 26. Cotter, Holland. Making Art When ‘Lockdown’ Means Prison, The New York Times. September 24. Works for the Now, by Queer Artists of Color, T Magazine. June 29. How These Seven Artists Use Their Work to Call for Change, Cultured. June 29. Mafi, Nick. Young Black Artists Speak About the Role of Art in This Moment, Architectural Digest. June 16. McLean, Matthew. Sable Elyse Smith Responds to the Rigged Logic of the US Criminal Justice System, Frieze. January 28.
2019	Reid, Tiana. In “Banal Presents,” Three Black Artists Intervene in Vast Social Institutions, from the Prison System to Education, Art in America. December 19. Homersham, Lizzie. Sable Elyse Smith, Artforum. December 14. Mitter, Siddhartha. Silence Speaking Volumes: Artists Confront the Culture of Incarceration, The New York Times. August 1. Girma, Hanna. The Weight of Objects, MoMA Magazine. July 17. O'Keeffe, Sara in conversation with Sable Elyse Smith. Vanishing Points, Mousse Magazine. Summer. Roffino, Sara. How Three Artists Are Taking on the Crisis of Mass Incarceration, Cultured. June 21. O'Regan, Kathryn. 5 groundbreaking exhibits you need to see at Art Basel, Sleek Magazine. June 12. Small, Zachary. Queer Artists in Their Own Words: Sable Elyse Smith Wants a Mean Falsetto, Hyperallergic. June 4. Smith, Sable Elyse. The Potent Vision of Kerby Jean-Raymond, Cultured. April/May. Valentine, Victoria L. In New Multiyear Partnership, Studio Museum in Harlem Will Present Exhibitions at MoMA and MoMA PS1, Culture Type. February 5.
2018	McAdams, Shane. Sable Elyse Smith's 'Ordinary Violence' at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Sheperd Express. December 18. Reid, Tiana. Sable Elyse Smith Uses a Coloring Book for Kids in Court To Critique the Violence of Social Control, Vulture. December 13. Nelson, Erin Jane. Sable Elyse Smith at JTT in New York, Burnaway. December 12. Musser, Amber Jamilla. Sable Elyse Smith: BOLO: Be on (the) Lookout, The Brooklyn Rail. December 11. Artspace Editors. On View Now: 9 Not-to-Miss Artworks in Downtown NYC, Artspace. November 17. Herriman, Kat. Gallery Peeping: Best of November 2018, Cultured. November. Russeth, Andrew. Here’s a Look at What the Whitney Museum Has Acquired Over the Past Year, ArtNews. September 24. Parrish, Amanda. Haggerty Museum welcomes featured artist, Marquette Wire. September 11. Korman, Sam. SITElines 2018: 'Casa tomada, art agenda. September 7. Princenthal, Nancy. 3 Outdoor Art Shows and One Trusty Dog (With Tricks!), New York Times. September 6. Yerebakan, Osman Can. Santa Fe's Celebrated Biennial SITElines Returns in Full Force, Cultured. August. Hamilton, Diana. Firsthand at Arm's Length, Art in America. June / July. Stoilas, Helen. Art for Justice Fund gives out $10m in new grants - including to art projects, Art Newspaper. June 29. Selvin, Claire. Here's the Artist List for the 2018 Edition of SITElines, ARTnews. May 14. The Artsy Vanguard: On the Rise, Artsy. April 30. Carrigan, Margaret. The Best Outdoor and Spring-Inspired Art Exhibitions in and Around NYC, Observer. April 13. Pope.L and Sable Elyse Smith Among Artists to Create Works for the High Line, Artforum. March 26. Greenberger, Alex. The Skin We're In: Exhibitions Around New York Explore Changing Notions of the Human Body, ARTnews. March 3. Dayal, Mira. Fictions, Artforum. March. Marciniak, Caroline. CONDO LONDON: greengrassi & Corvi-Mora, London, UK, Frieze Magazine. March. Mitter, Siddhartha. One Nation, Behind Bars: Examining Prison Culture Through Photography, Village Voice. February 28. Lynne, Jessica. Sable Elyse Smith, Aperture Magazine. February/March. Excerpt from Landscapes and Playgrounds, Aperture Magazine. February/March (cover). Ashfaque, Rabia. Who is More Guilty? Sable Elyse Smith Ordinary Violence, BOMB. January. Smith, Sable Elyse. The Uses of Power, Artforum. January.
2017	Parmer, Amanda. Striking Nerves: Art and Protest in 2017, Art in America. December 28. Cotter, Holland. From the Personal to the Political, 19 Artists to Watch Next Year, New York Times. December 27. Johnson, Rindon. Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon, Brooklyn Rail. December 13. 30 Young Artists to Watch in 2018, Cultured Magazine. November. Fisher, Cora. An Artist’s Bond with Her Imprisoned Father, Hyperallergic. November 11. Greenberger, Alex. Studio Museum in Harlem Names 2018 Artists-in-Residence, Artnews. November 9. Pedro, Laila. Confronting and Correcting Racist Narratives in Media and Art, Hyperallergic. November 8. Nimrod, Selby. Keeping it together: Tracing truths + falsehoods in the narrative thrust of the Fictions group show at Studio Museum, AQNB. November 7. Ball, Katherine Brewer. Intimate Variations: Other Romances at Rachel Uffner Gallery, Bomb. October 25. Thackara, Tess. The Latest in the Studio Museum’s Landmark “F” Series Is a Timely Exploration of Truth and Fiction, Artsy. September 19. Mitter, Siddhartha. At “Fictions” in Harlem, Young Black Artists Are on Fire, Village Voice. September 13. Smith, Sable E., The Sound is the Picture, affidavit. August 28. Schwendener, Martha. What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week, New York Times. August 24. Herriman, Kat. Posture and Principle, Cultured. August. Schwendener, Martha. 10 Galleries to Visit Now in Brooklyn, New York Times. April 27. Walsh, Brienne. A Curator Heeds The Post-Election Call to Battle At The Volta Art Fair, Forbes. March 1. Firestone, Jesse Bandler. Bodies for a Future yet to Come, D/Railed. January 26. Meier, Allison. Christopher Walken Heads, Winged Feet, and Other Sculptures Alight Along the East River, Hyperallergic. January 24. Kaack, Nicole. Miguel Angel Cardenas and Without a Body at Andrea Rosen, SFAQ. January 20.
2016	McGarrigle, Lia. 4 Black Artists You Need To Know: As chosen by contemporary art girl collective Black Art Incubator, Amuse-i-D.vice.com. August 12. Sarget, Antwaun. Enter the Realm of a Cosmic Black Utopia, The Creators Project: VICE. July 14. Heinlein, Sabine. Artists Grapple With America’s Prison System, The New York Times. March 11. Tobak, Vikki. Visualizing The Overlooked Legacy of Mass Incarceration, Narrative.ly. January 18. Greenerger, Alex. Creative Capital Announces 2016 Awardees in Emerging Fields, Literature, and Performing Arts, ARTNEWS. January 12.
2015	Reis, Victoria. Artists of the African Diaspora Cast off the Legacy of Displacement, Hyperallergic. December 10.
2014	Palmer, Lauren. 6 Must-See Art Events in New York This Week, Art in America. October 26. King, Jamilah. Kara Walker’s Sugar Sphinx Evokes Call From Black Women: We Are Here, Color lines. June 23. We Are Here: Black Women Claim their Space at Kara Walker’s Controversial Sugar Sphinx Show, Ebony. July 2.

CURATORIAL PROJECTS

2022	Beneath Tongues, Swiss Institute, New York, NY
2020	SI ONLINE: FEAR TOUCH POLICE, Swiss Institute, New York, NY
2019	C.R.E.A.M., High Line Art and The Kitchen, New York, NY

PUBLICATIONS

2022	And Blue In A Decade Where It Finally Means Sky. New York, JTT and Los Angeles, Regen Projects.
2019	Smith, Sable Elyse and Siegel, Cal. ...In that Empire. Pacific.
2018	Fictions. New York, The Studio Museum in Harlem, p.92-95 (exhibition catalogue).
2017	Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon. New York, New Museum, p.160-163 (exhibition catalogue).
2016	Smith, Sable Elyse. Ecstatic Resilience, Essay, Recess Art (online). Written in parallel with Lauren Halsey: Kingdom Splurge (4), Recess Art, New York, NY.
2015	Smith, Sable Elyse. Blue Is Ubiquitous and Forbidden, self published. Edition of 150.

TALKS AND LECTURES

2019	Melanie Crean, Shaun Leonardo, and Sable Elyse Smith in Conversation with Nicole R. Fleetwood, New Museum, New York, NY. July 25.
2017	Public Art and Prison Reform, Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA. April 20.
2016	Why Explicit?: Panel with Lorraine O’Grady, Sondra Perry, and Sable Elyse Smith, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, New York, NY Afrofuturism Conference 2016: #BlackIsViral, Panel: Hyper Visibility of the Black Image with Caitlin Cherry & Devin Kenny, The New School, New York, NY In Conversation with Shaun Leonardo, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY. March 23. Comrade What is Your Visual Bond? Sunday Sessions: Panel, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY
2015	New Museum R&D Seminar: Persona, Selected Participant, New Museum, New York, NY Dis Place: Artist Talk, Moderated by Jessica Lynne, MoCADA, Brooklyn, NY I Can’t Breathe: Conversation with Shaun Leonardo, Moderated by Kimberly Drew, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY
2014	In Conversation with Ayana Jackson and Monique Long, Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York, NY Subtleties of Resistance, in dialogue with Nicole Fleetwood, Free University at Kara Walker’s “A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar Baby,” New York, NY
2013	Culture Push Honorary Fellow: Reading & Writing Group, as a member of the Fantastic Futures collective iLab Residency: Through Body, Through Earth, Through Speech, as a member of the Fantastic Futures collective, New York, NY
2012	It Is All Here. Memories Can’t Wait, Panel Participant, The International Center for Photography, New York, NY. December 14.
2011	History, Earth, Flesh, Panel Participant at the Liberal Arts Symposium, Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, GA. April 3.

AWARDS

2018	Artist in Residence, Studio Museum in Harlem
2017	Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant
2016	NYSCA Individual Artist Program in Film and Media Fine Arts Work Center FellowFoundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant Queens Museum Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artist Recess Art: Critical Writing Fellow Emerging Artist Fellowship Socrates Sculpture Park Creative Capital Fellow Creative Capital Fellow
2015	Art Matters Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

	The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
	Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI
	Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
	ICA Miami, Miami, FL
	The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
	The New School, New York, NY
	The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
	The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
	Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
	ICA Boston, Boston, MA

	Aeromoto Library, Mexico City, MX
	Center for Book Arts, New York, NY
	Evergreen State College Library, Olympia, WA
	Free Black Women’s Library, New York, NY
	MoMA Library, New York, NY
	Princeton University Library, Princeton, NJ
	Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Ubana and Champaign, IL
	SFMOMA Library, San Francisco, CA
	Smithsonian Libraries, Washington D.C.