Month: October 2019

“Art is like a natural expression where people try to synthesise what their experiences or creativity is. In a way, it’s like a mirror or reflection of what’s inside of you” says Kiki Smith. Kiki Smith reflects on nature, her inspirations, and making art that is both personal and universal in this new short documentary,… Continue reading MAO 360: Mini Documentary – Kiki Smith: I am a Wanderer

Kiki Smith was inspired to create her large-scale tapestries following a visit to the Apocalypse Tapestry in Angers, France in 1976. The tapestry, spread over a number of sections that originally totalled 90 scenes, depicts the story of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation by Saint John the Divine. It was produced between 1377… Continue reading MAO 360: Kiki Smith’s tapestries and Medieval inspiration

Midway through Kiki Smith’s exhibition I am a Wanderer at Modern Art Oxford we encounter a Wünderkammer, ‘a cabinet of curiosities,’ which contains a strange array of forms and materials, both human and animal. Among this curious collection are a glass frog, a porcelain dead cat, a silver shooting star and a bat cast in… Continue reading MAO 360: A closer look at Kiki Smith’s Cabinet of Curiosities

This summer, we’ve been asking our younger visitors what they enjoy most about being creative in, and around the city. Based on their ideas, we have entered Oxford Bus Company’s annual charity competition, offering one winning cause the chance to take over a double decker bus in 2020! If we win, the The Art Tour… Continue reading Vote for our Art Tour Bus designed by and for local children!

For this post, our Marketing and Communications Assistant Cecilia Rosser takes a closer look at the story behind My Blue Lake, one of Kiki Smith’s most intriguing print works. In the early 1990s, having worked on several depictions of different parts of the body, Kiki Smith became interested in ways of two-dimensionally depicting the three-dimensional… Continue reading The body as a landscape: the making of Kiki Smith’s My Blue Lake

Kiki Smith is often inspired by fairytales and stories in her work. Pool of Tears II takes its inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and from Carroll’s original manuscript and John Tenniel’s original illustrations of the story.  In Pool of Tears II Alice, having shrunk to the size of a mouse, falls into a pool… Continue reading Kiki Smith and Alice in Wonderland

Zoe Harding is a 2nd year BFA student at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford. She conducted a student placement in the Programme Team at Modern Art Oxford spanning the period before, during, and after the install of Kiki Smith: I am a Wanderer. In her piece for our blog, she looks back on the… Continue reading Being Between You and the World: The Condition within Kiki Smith’s I am a Wanderer

Amy Richardson from the University of Reading was our second Platform Graduate Award 2019 artist. Her powerful exhibition There’s nothin’ soft about hard times took place at Modern Art Oxford from 19-29 September. In her piece for our blog, Amy considers her engagement with textiles as a medium, and the challenge of making work that strikes… Continue reading Platform 2019 – It’s not just political, it’s personal

In this latest post, second year Classics student at Oxford University and Modern Art Oxford student ambassador, Zoe Hind takes us on a journey through the environmental, social and political themes which resonate throughout Kiki Smith’s exhibition at Modern Art Oxford. Zoe is a writer for the Cherwell, Oxford University’s weekly student newspaper and is… Continue reading Artistic Sensibility in the Shadow of an Ecological Apocalypse: A Review of Kiki Smith: I am a Wanderer

Led by our Production Manager, Scot Blyth, the Modern Art Oxford production team recently installed 12 large-scale tapestries, 28 small sculptures, 21 photographs and 60 print works for Kiki Smith’s exhibition. Discover more about what goes into the making of our exhibitions with this latest time lapse film, shot during the installation of Kiki Smith:… Continue reading The making of Kiki Smith: I am a Wanderer – Time lapse