Curated by Sara Reisman

No dust, no stain is Shinique Smith’s sculptural homage to the multitude of meditative spiritual practices that connect seemingly disparate religions of the world. Smith’s assemblage of everyday materials like carpet, clothes, graffiti, coins, and found ephemera conjures a hybrid between the street and sacred space, like the ad hoc living quarters that emerge intermittently throughout urban landscapes. The artist’s first interactive sculptural installation, No dust, no stain is an inquiry into possible modes of participation in both spiritual and commodity exchanges.

Smith’s recent series of Bale Variants are structures made out of clothing, twine, and wood that reference the overabundance of textiles clothing in particular throughout the first world. Named for the bales of clothing shipped to third world countries, these works are monuments to the excess and loss experienced within the global economy. These works, as well as the bundled objects constructed from cast off material that Smith is best known for, take formal cues from her paintings and drawings, which are often penned directly onto the wall. No dust, no stain combines Smith’s approaches to various mediums drawing, collage, sculpture, and installation to immerse viewers in a space where beauty can be found in the balance between aesthetics and reprieve.