SCMAinsider
SCMAinsider offers dynamic perspectives on the diverse collections and visions that shape the
Smith College Museum of Art.
We welcome contributions from all members of our community and seek to cultivate a range of
voices and experiences. If you want to contribute to the blog, please contact us at scmacuratorial@smith.edu.
Summer Curatorial Research Intern: Olivia White ’20 (UMass MA ’25)
As a master’s student in the History of Art & Architecture Department at the University of
Transforming Dish Towels: Anne Ryan's Collages
Anne Ryan didn’t start making collages until she was 58, but once she found the medium, she embraced it eagerly.
A History of Handwork | Giant Woman (Empire State)
Gripping a paintbrush in one hand and the Empire State in the other, the woman dominates a space synonymous with male-centric corporations and class inequality.
A History of Handwork | Ausencias
During the late 1990s, González-Palma created photographic collages illuminating the grief of indigenous peoples by utilizing symbols of loss, trauma, fear, and violence in contrast with beauty and human fragility.
A History of Handwork | Untitled #14
Czech photographer Michal Mackü created Untitled #14 using an unusual technique called gellage —a fusion of the words gelatin and collage— which he invented and perfected during the late 1980s and ‘90s.
STUDENT PICKS | Whole Encounters: Partial Impressions
In application, what an artist chooses to depict in an encounter with their sitter is only an impression, not representative of the whole person being captured.
A History of Handwork | At The Lion's Cage
Although this image seems simple at first--an amateur drawing of a lion in a cage next to cut out photographs of two bored looking girls-- J.F. has used symbolic elements of Victorian culture to infuse it with meaning.
Announcing the Student Picks 2017-18 Winners!
Announcing the seven winners of the 2017-18 Student Picks Sweepstakes!
STUDENT PICKS | Psychic Playgrounds: Reshaping Reality
How do representations of daily life enact possibilities in other dimensions? What did I want these everyday spaces to be? How can these spaces be distorted under humans’ cerebral manipulation?
On Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s “Dressing to Go Out/Undressing to Go In” (or, Don’t Try This At Home)
The hurried, active quality of the photographs that comprise the work allows viewers a glimpse into what ‘motherhood’ could have looked like for a working female artist during one of the more pivotal moments of second-wave feminism in America.
Contemporary Black Women Artists in the Cunningham Center: Kara Walker
Walker’s work explores the violences of the history of slavery in the American antebellum South as she creates elaborate scenes of outlined slaves and masters, oppressors and the oppressed.
Contemporary Black Women Artists in the Cunningham Center: Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie Mae Weems's work addresses racism, sexism, family relationships, class and power, her photographs spanning from intimate documentations of her family and community to powerful works that widely address the African-American experience.
Contemporary Black Women Artists in the Cunningham Center: Lorna Simpson
Lorna Simpson rose to prominence in the art world in the 1980s for her art exploring black female identity and historical memory. Her work combines photography, text art and installation to create subtle and engaging works that are difficult to decode but meaningful in the effort it takes to understand them.
