Yvette Kaiser Smith

I am an artist who uses numbers. Employing sequences from numbers pi or e, I create wall-based geometric abstractions, where values of digits direct a composition’s formal structure: placement of line and shape, structure of a grid or pattern, color relationships. I look for simple and direct ways to combine industrial felts with acrylic sheet scraps as slow stitching, a traditional craft element found across cultures and time, binds layers together. Recent works drift through multiple artforms in varying degrees. They combine languages of sculpture, embroidery, and weaving. They may allude to painting, drawing, or tapestry. Always straddling two worlds, the works reside on the periphery of established artforms. This I believe to be a consequence of immigrating when young, to perpetually float between two cultures, always residing in between, never fully of one or the other.

I spent over 20 years creating works, based on identity narratives, by crocheting fiberglass, a process that engaged my hands at every stage. Number sequences entered as part of an expanding identity dialogue. In 2016, due to a temporary loss of workspace, I transitioned the math to laser-cut acrylic forms. The new process almost completely removed my hand a...

EDUCATION

1994
MFA, University of Chicago, IL
1990
BFA, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
1990
Yale Summer School of Art, Norfolk, CT

RECENT EXHIBITIONS

2024 Solo Exhibition
MEASURED + INFUSED, Harper College, Palatine, IL

2024 Two-Person Exhibition
dialog concrete art, with Robert Krainhofner, Kunsthandlung Huber & Treff, Jena, Germany

2024 Two-Person Exhibition
Chromatic Harmony, with Jackie Kazarian, Alma Art & Interiors Gallery, Chicago, IL

Group Exhibitions

2024
CAVA x ALMA, Alma Art & Interiors Gallery, Chicago, IL
Chicago Style: A Local Exhibition, The Chicago Fine Art Salon, Chicago, IL
9th Annual River North Design District Fall Gallery Walk, Lightology, Chicago, IL
CAVA Members’ Show, North Shore Art League, Winnetka, IL
Agency: Craft in Chicago from the 1970s-80s and Beyond, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, IL
CSI x ALMA, Alma Art & Interiors Gallery, Chicago, IL
Maximizing Minimalism, Visual Arts Gallery, Governors State University, University Park, IL

2023
Elemental Impact, Epiphany Center for the Arts, Chicago, IL
Evanston + Vicinity Biennial, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL
Sweet Home Chicago, Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, IL
Absurdity: In Dada We Trust, The Art Center, Highland Park, IL
Color/Form Sculpture Exhibition, Robert T. Wright Community Gallery of Art, College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL
Playing on the Wide Shore, J...