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Jo Smail (born 1943) is an American artist born and educated in Durban, South Africa. [1] Smail emigrated to the United States in 1985. [2] [3]

Early life and education

Smail was born and raised in Durban, South Africa. There she received a degree in English and in history. After having three children, she attended art school. [3]

Career

Her work in painting, collage and drawing has been described as "poetic annotations." [2] Her series of works, “Mongrel Collection,” from 2018 incorporate fragments of printed fabric, drawing and pigment prints mounted on eccentrically shaped MDF board. [4]

Her retrospective exhibition, Flying with Remnant Wings, was presented at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2021. [5] [6] She has collaborated on numerous works with the artist William Kentridge during the early years of the 2000s. [3]

She has received reviews in the New York Times, [7] Baltimore Magazine, [5] Art In America, [8] Hyperallergic, [2] Artforum, [4] among other publications.

In 1996, a significant amount of her work was destroyed in a fire at her studio in the Clipper Mill Industrial Park in Baltimore. [2] [6] She lost 25 years worth of work in the fire that engulfed her studio. After the fire, her work developed an autobiographical tendency. [9]

Smail taught at the Johannesburg College of Art, the University of the Witwatersrand and at the Maryland Institute College of Art. [9]

Collections

Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, [10] the Johannesburg Art Museum, [11] the National Gallery of South Africa [11] among other venues. In 1996 she received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship. [11]

Personal life

Smail is married to Julien Davis, a research scientist and photographer. [2] In 2000, she suffered a stroke and lost the ability to walk and speak. She continued to make art beginning with drawings and paintings that depicted "silence and sounds that became a new kind of language." She later regained her mobility and the ability to speak. [3]

References

  1. ^ "Jo Smail". Jo Smail (website). Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e Nemett, Barry (9 May 2020). "An Artist as Resilient as She Is Joyous". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d Kirkman, Rebekah (30 September 2015). "Starting from Scratch: Considerate of every mark, painter Jo Smail lets go of what she thinks she knows". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  4. ^ a b Clark, Andy Martinelli. "Jo Smail". Artforum. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  5. ^ a b King, Matthew (2 November 2020). "Jo Smail's Visual Poetry Transforms Loss Into Joy". Baltimore Magazine. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  6. ^ a b "Jo Smail with Louis Block". The Brooklyn Rail. July 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  7. ^ Cotter, Holland (10 February 2006). "Art in Review: Jo Smail". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  8. ^ Hirsh, Jennie (27 March 2012). "Jo Smail". Art in America. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  9. ^ a b "Studio Visit: Jo Smail". Goya Contemporary. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  10. ^ "Collaboration #9 (Jo Smail with William Kentridge)". Baltimore Museum of Art. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  11. ^ a b c "Jo Smail". Art in Embassies, U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
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