victoria smits
WORKS
Haptic Memoir (Epilogue To), 2023 Silk bridal voile, used dryer sheets, voice, microbial cellulose, bisque and second-fire clay husks, cochineal dye, dried and wax-preserved night-blooming cereus 108 x 96 x 96 in.
Sundowned III, 2023 Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle paper, dryer sheet used as filter (editions 2-4 of 4 available) 18 x 18 in.
Asymmetrical Memories, 2023 50g and 200g wool test knitting formed into a pocket, notecards with incomplete phrases, knit box (viewers are invited to take a notecard, fill in the blanks, and place it in the knit box) 24" x 18" x 3"
On Becoming: Mother Worry/Mother Warrior, 2022 Bisque-fired clay, avocado-dyed cheesecloth, poly, sensor activated voice 3' x 4' x 6' Sensor design by Michael Powel
Sum of My Parts, 2022 Hand-stitched quilt made from wedding dress from 2nd marriage, clothes worn after birth of my last child to hide my body, baby blanket from youngest child, linens from paternal grandmother, avocado-dyed cheesecloth, Nigerian fabric from fieldwork with former partner, map of Civilization made by youngest child and transferred to fabric 64" x 64"
ABOUT
Victoria Smits's interdisciplinary practice focuses on intellectual and iconographic systems of being in the world, emphasizing informed consciousness, percipience, and agency. Her explorations interrogate internalized beliefs about self, identity, and empowerment — investigating how these are acquired generationally and through hegemonic frameworks. Within her practice, text and visual converge, science and cheesecloth hold hands, and the abstraction of the natural environment intersects with the maternal.
Victoria Smits is an artist, writer, researcher, and educator living in Eugene, Oregon. She studied English, art, and secondary education at Calvin College, holds an MA in English Education with a concentration in creative writing from University of Buffalo, and an MFA in Studio through the School of Art Institute of Chicago. Smits has exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at the Manchester Craft and Design Centre, Manchester, UK, the School of Art Institute of Chicago SITE Gallery, the Art Center Highland Park, and Arc Gallery in Chicago. She will have poetry forthcoming in Gone Feral through Demeter Press in 2024.