During the 1980s, 90s and early 2000s, Smith expanded her practice, creating sculptures, paintings, and performances as a form of social commentary—in response to war, ecology and the environment, abortion, AIDS, work, and other issues in relation to womanhood. Smith’s Camouflage Maternity Dress (2004) is a re-imagining of Maternity Dress (1966). In both sculptures, the dress features a transparent plastic dome that reveals the maternal bump (she wore the mod 60s version with its faux-marble kitchen linoleum pattern during her first pregnancy). In Camouflage Maternity Dress, the plastic pod is posed in contrast to a bold battledress pattern, challenging expectations of women who go great lengths to conceal a growing baby while experiencing the realities of pregnancy and motherhood. Here, Smith reveals the process of reproduction and birth as being a war-like experience. 

In response to the growing number of women climbing the corporate ladder, Smith created the installation Slave Ready: Corporate (1991-1993) featuring a “dress for success" grey pinstripe suit edged in steel wool. To the right of the suit a wall clock reads “Just a Minute, Please,” and on the left side, a computer Error Message painting exclaims “Slave Ready.” In the 1980s, Smith learned computer programming which inspired a series of 9 x 12-inch paintings of computer error messages. This series relies on the "master-slave" computer user language which was highly coded for inaccessibility. (Today, there is a push for more neutral, less offensive terms.)

Another work in the exhibition, Endangered Species Coat (2007), is an ironic response to how clothing is used as a protective guard against harsh environmental conditions yet is constructed of (plush) endangered animals that have suffered at the expense of human consumption. A common theme that threads her works together is how clothing acts as an extension of personhood, revealing real-life implications without a physical body being present. 

Smith’s practice is not just limited to the manipulation of clothing, but also includes a variety of other mediums. She uses graphite and acrylic on board in her series Timelines (1999-2005) to track unseen aspects of the aging process in a systematic way, narrating the cycle of life through the transformation of what is worn overtime. In the Underpants and Undershirts series, a woman’s life is depicted chronologically through illustrations of intimate apparel. The drawings reveal the stages of a life from childhood through old age—from jogging and nursing bras to mastectomy bras—and explore how objects, specifically garments, are signifiers of the complex phases of life. Her sculptural clock, Don't Turn Back (1985) employs words and phrases to address the timely issue of reproductive rights.  Don't turn back the hands of time; protect women's right to choose.

Smith’s work remains as fresh and pointed today as it was when she created it. By employing accessible materials and personal narrative, her works raise questions that go far beyond the usual concerns of “art.” She was prescient in her practice rooted in feminist criticism by critiquing the coded, subtle messages within the seemingly innocuous objects and events of everyday life. Mimi Smith’s works expand beyond feminist issues, interrogating contemporary politics, media and the language of art itself. 

Mimi Smith (b. 1942, Brookline, MA) received her MFA from Rutgers University in 1966 and her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art in 1963. Her work was included in the seminal exhibition WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution (2007), curated by Connie Butler, and has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States, and internationally at such institutions as the New Museum, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; The Bronx Museum, NY; Hayward Gallery, London; and The Institute of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, among others. Smith has been awarded a Joan Mitchell Grant, a New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant. Smith’s works are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Getty, Los Angeles; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA; The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, among others. Smith lives and works in New York City.

For further information, including images and previews, please call 213-395-0762, or email: gallery@luisdejesus.com.