Krista Louise Smith’s work circles around desire and fear. Oscillating between mediums- paint and clay, Smith invents scenarios where paintings and ceramics (often shown together) expand a broader framework of expression. Colors tie the mediums together in a harmonious world of pale pastels where tight tonal shifts contribute to the softness in both the paintings and the sculptures. Themes of escapism, loss and dreams are playfully explored (most recently) through paintings of semi-abstract clouds and skies, and an army of small-scale ceramic teeth or abstracted jawbones. After suffering from a rare nerve condition for years, she learned to depend on my non-dominant hand to create art. Opening up to various mediums and letting go of superficial judgments, my work is diaristic and relies on deeply intuitive processes where catharsis is at its core.
Krista-Louise Smith is a Canadian-born artist living and working in Brooklyn. She received her BFA from OCAD University (formerly the Ontario College of Art and Design) in Toronto in 2010, and in 2014 an MFA in Painting from the New York Academy of Art, where she was a NYAA Merit Scholarship recipient. Smith has conducted residencies at the Leipzig International Artist in Residence in Leipzig, Germany, at Byrdcliffe Artist Colony in Woodstock, New York, and at the Art Students League Residency at VYT, Sparkhill, New York. She is a three-time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation for the Arts Grant and has also been awarded the Ruth Katzman Prize and a New York Foundation for the Arts Covid Relief Grant. She currently works as an adjunct professor of studio arts at F.I.T. and Queens College.