Artist-in-Residence
Nyugen E. Smith
Charleston, SC | Spring 2025
Nyugen E. Smith (b. 1976) is known for his visually complex and emotionally compelling explorations of African diasporic histories, cultures, and identities. His practice is multidisciplinary in nature, encompassing painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, performance, poetry, and spoken word. Smith has described his working process as rhizomatic, akin to the subterranean spread of a plant stem that sends shoots and roots in different directions. Accordingly, his concern with African diasporic histories has led, in turn, to diverse explorations of colonialism, slavery, linguistics, cartography, and global migrations from past to present.
Smith was born in the U.S. to immigrant parents of Trinidadian and Haitian origin, and spent his formative years in Trinidad. This experience shaped his visual aesthetic, one in which collage and assemblage reference the inventive reuse of found objects and scrap materials that he witnessed on the island. A profound sense of his own ancestry and deep knowledge of Caribbean histories and cultures are the nexus for Smith’s wide-ranging investigations, especially into African spiritualities and the strategies by which oppressed, dispossessed, or displaced communities sustain themselves.
Smith’s work at FSA was particularly informed by his recent travels in Barbados, where sugar plantations had provided both the model and enslaved labor for the earliest such ventures in Charleston. The artist’s visits to Charleston area museums, former plantations, and historical sites—such as Charles Towne Landing, where the first English settlers from Barbados arrived in 1670 with African slaves—resonated in various ways throughout his residency. The range of artworks that he produced all express in some manner a profound regard for enslaved populations, the traditions that they preserved, and the knowledge that they passed down. Several works also engage with issues that have long concerned the artist, such as the possibility of ritual and spiritual recuperation beyond ancestral homelands.
About the Artist
Smith holds a BA in Fine Art from Seton Hall University and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been presented at various museums…
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FSA Inspired Garden Party + Open Studios, 2025.
FSA Inspired Garden Party + Open Studios, 2025.
FSA Inspired Garden Party + Open Studios, 2025
Nyugen E. Smith, "Follow de Signs They Say" (installation view), 2025. Mixed media sculpture. Photo by Jorge Uribe.
Nyugen E. Smith, "Untitled Work in Progress (Sound Ritual for Those who died during forced migration)," 2025. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas.
Nyugen E. Smith, "Crossroads Guardian with sound stem and boombox" (detail), 2025. Fabric, canvas, paper, plastic, tomato stem, felt, paper, carved crape myrtle, found floorboards, bells, wire, beads sequins, and cork.
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.
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