Yvon Lambert is pleased to announce Shinique Smith’s Ten Times Myself, the artist’s first solo exhibition at Yvon Lambert New York. Ten Times Myself will feature new works by the American artist including paintings and sculptures. The exhibit will run concurrently with an exhibition of new works by Michael Brown. Both exhibitions will open with a reception for the artists on Thursday, May 21, 2009 from 6-8 pm and will be on view until July 31, 2009.

Shinique Smith brings the anonymous aspects of life to the forefront, examining her own footing within a world constantly askew. Ten Times Myself, inspired from song lyrics, is a self-imposed call to be bolder and to go from one to ten without remorse. Infusing an ardent style owing to Abstract Expressionism and Japanese Calligraphy, the continuity of Smith’s paintings, collages, and sculptures combine a graceful spontaneity and an explosive, yet controlled, movement.

With Ten Times Myself, Smith maintains an innate physical and intimate approach, revealing a compression of memories while blurring the context of life and art, the real and the perceived. In each medium, the artist utilizes discarded objects – many of which, alone, lack significance. Integrating intense, and vibrantly hued textiles that weave in and out of each work, Smith creates her own form of calligraphic gesture that transgresses the written language. The result is an autobiographical narrative that speaks to nostalgia and the inherent examination of the meaning of “broken” as well as “whole.”

Through these works, Smith “rants, confesses and embraces,” conveying an in-depth view, not solely of self but within a wider cultural context of the value placed on what we hold on to, give away and discard, and how that plays into who we become. In dealing with such multi-layered discourse, the artist’s overall outlook, at times ranging from aggressive to romantic, is one of optimism and hopefulness.

Smith’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions internationally at venues including The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; The New Museum, New York; Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin; PS 1 Contemporary Arts Center, New York; and The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Colorado. She is included in public collections such as The Denver Art Museum, Colorado; The Studio Museum, New York; The Margulies Collection, Miami; The Rubell Family Collection, Miami; and the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore.