Artist-in-Residence

Nyugen E. Smith
Charleston, SC | Spring 2025

FSA looks forward to hosting Nyugen E. Smith for our upcoming Spring 2025 Charleston residency, taking place in March and April. Smith lives and works in Jersey City, NJ, and his practice revolves around the construction of narrative through the prism of Black cultural identity. The manifold ramifications of European colonialism across the African Diaspora serve as the foundation upon which his practice is constructed. Smith adopts a rhizomatic methodology, characterized by its non-linear and interconnected approach, as a means of conceptualizing and realizing creative expression.

Smith’s work is currently part of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture’s exhibition In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World, on view through June 8th, 2025.

 

Guided by the metaphorical roots of this colonial legacy, Smith is interested in the dynamic interplay between various thematic nodes, including architecture, language, performance, ritual, trauma, DNA memory, climate change, and migration.

Guided by the metaphorical roots of this colonial legacy, Smith is interested in the dynamic interplay between various thematic nodes, including architecture, language, performance, ritual, trauma, DNA memory, climate change, and migration. These thematic nodes are woven into the fabric of his practice. The inherent poetry of their relational dynamics guides the creation of the work.

Central to his practice is an emphasis on the utilization of pre-existing materials, the body, and play, within the art-making process. 

Smith holds a BA, Fine Art from Seton Hall University and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been presented at the Museum of Latin American Art, Peréz Art Museum, Museum of Cultural History, Norway, Frist Art Museum, Blanton Museum, Newark Museum, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, among others. Nyugen is the recipient of the Creative Capital Award, Leonore Annenberg Performing and Visual Arts Fund, Franklin Furnace Fund, Dr. Doris Derby Award, New Jersey State Council on the Arts grant, and Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant.

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Nyugen E. Smith, "Bundle House FS Mini No. 10 (Open Water)," 2022. Found pallet, wood, nails, canvas, plastic, wire, net, beads, yarn, oil pastel, acrylic, latex, bells, metal, graphite, rope, cork, faux-fur, twine, collage, map pins, tacks, bottle caps, tire, sequins, and watercolor. Collection of International African American Museum, Charleston, SC.

Nyugen E. Smith, “Saint I & I,” 2024. Wood, canvas, fabric, nails, sequins, acrylic, latex, wire, plastic, beads, jewelry, shoes, speaker, leather, metal, rug, bench, mirror, life vest, beeswax, ceramic, shotgun shell, rope, kaolin, and twine.

Nyugen E. Smith, “Bundle House: Migrant Magic,” 2023. Wood, canvas, watercolor, acrylic, oil pastel, graphite, colored pencil, metal, twine, paper, plastic, rope, cowbell, bottlecap, cork, beeswax, diaspora soil, fabric, sequins, beads, leather, ball, and nails.

Nyugen E. Smith, “Untitled House and Land,” 2022. Wood, latex, reproduction of the rose window from Notre-Dame Cathedral in Port-au-Prince (destroyed by Haiti's Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake), artist-designed wallpaper, sculptures, artist-made ceramic objects, globe, found medicine bottles, sound, artist-made drawings, and tables.

Nyugen E. Smith, “Bundle House: Rise Up and Walk II,” 2022. Found wood, fabric, canvas, fur, metal, wire, bells, acrylic, rubber, shoes, nails, ceramic, leather, plastic, oil pastel, oil stick, graphite, net, cork, sequins and beads.

Nyugen E. Smith, “Spirit Carriers,” 2022. Installation View.

Read

The Smithsonian Looks at How the Slave Trade Shaped the World | The New York Times

World-building and Futurity through Collaboration in Caribbean Diasporic Art Practices: A Conversation | Art Journal Open

View

Nyugen E. Smith | Artist Webpage

In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World