Interviews from Yale University Radio WYBCX

Interviews from Yale University Radio   WYBCX


Lenard Smith

January 23, 2021

Lenard Smith is a first generation Ghanaian-American interdisciplinary artist living and working in Los Angeles, California. Smith’s Advanced Photographic Studies MFA from Bard College grounds his work in traditional practices and methodologies — his interest in tableaux pictures are derived from historical guide books that offer solutions to life or death scenarios. Smith's experimentation with sculpture comes from an urge to collect and make meaning of the natural world we inhabit and what humankind has made of the world.

In 2020 Smith was included in virtual exhibitions with Los Angeles Municipal gallery and received grants from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and an Artist Relief Grant to continue his studio practice from home.

Smith has held artist residencies at Salmon Creek Farm (Mendocino CA), Unpublished Studio (Los Angeles CA), and Light Work Artist Residency Program (New York), published books with Pau Wau Publications, &Press, and has had his book featured in the Radical Reading Room (2019) project at Studio Museum Harlem.

Fig. 56 Position of Bearers, 2010 From the series 'In Case of Emergency' Archival Pigment Print 30 x 40 inches Edition of 3 + 2 A.P.

Runaway Slave, 2020 Archival Pigment Print 40 x 60 inches Edition of 5 + 2 A.P.