Tuesday Smillie (born 1981 in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

) is an American interdisciplinary artist based in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. Her work focuses on trans-feminist politics and the aesthetics of protest. Smillie has been recognized for her reinterpretation of protest banners through traditional craft materials. Writer Johanna Fateman describes work like Smillie's ''Street Transvestites 1973'' (2015) as "ornate, meticulously sewn and painted trans-liberation banners" that "could not get their radical point across more lovingly."

Life and work

Smillie holds a BFA from

Oregon College of Art and Craft The Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC) was a Private college, private art school, art college from 1907 to 2019 in Portland, Oregon, United States. The college granted Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees as well as art-focu ...

with a concentration in Book Arts. Many of Smillie's collections take inspiration from feminist science fiction author

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...

, primarily her novel ''

The Left Hand of Darkness ''The Left Hand of Darkness'' is a science fiction novel by the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Published in 1969, it became immensely popular, and established Le Guin's status as a major author of science fiction. The novel is set in the f ...

'' about gender-fluid inhabitants of the planet Gethen. Smillie has held solo exhibitions at the

Rose Art Museum The Rose Art Museum, founded in 1961, is a part of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, US. Named after benefactors Edward and Bertha Rose, it offers temporary exhibitions, and it displays and houses works of art from its permanent co ...

, Participant Inc, and her work has been included in group exhibitions at the

Rubin Museum of Art The Rubin Museum of Art, also known as the Rubin Museum, is dedicated to the collection, display, and preservation of the art and cultures of the Himalayas, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and other regions within Eurasia, with a permanent ...

Artists Space Artists Space is a non-profit art gallery and arts organization first established at 155 Wooster Street in SoHo, Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1972 by Irving Sandler and Trudie Grace and funded by the New York State Council on the Arts ...

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

, and the

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-nam ...

. She led a Study Session at the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

. Smillie's work has been featured in several news sources of prestige including

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ × 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American art magazine, based in New York City. It covers visual arts from ancient to contemporary times. It is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. ''ARTnews'' has a readership of 180,000 in 124 co ...

, Wall Street International Magazine and

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

. She was the first resident artist of the Museum Of Transgender Hirstory & Art (MOTHA). In 2016 a series of watercolor paintings inspired by LeGuin’s novel were displayed at

Haverford College Haverford College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Fr ...

. The exhibition was organized by the Haverford College Libraries in conjunction with the exhibition “Bring Your Own Body: transgender between aesthetics and archives," an exhibit curated by Jeanne Vaccaro and Stamatina Gregory at the 41 Cooper Gallery in New York. In 2018, she had two solo exhibitions and one group exhibition: "Reflecting Light into The Unshadow," which ran from 1 July until 5 August at Participant Inc. located in New York, "To build another world," which ran from 7 September through 9 December at the Rose Art Museum, and “Face of the Future," which ran through 4 November at The Rubin Museum of Art. Taking the Le Guin novel ''

'' as inspiration, Smillie displayed an array of textile collages and banners as well as prints and works on paper including several watercolor paintings. In "Face of the Future," contemporary artists were challenged to create artwork taking inspiration from the classical sci-fi genre as well as their own imaginings of the future. Smillie’s work was presented alongside works by Maia Cruz Palileo, Tammy Nguyen, Sahana Ramakrishnan and Anuj Shrestha.

Awards and residencies

Awards

's Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence Award * Grant from Art Matters

Residencies

* Kala Art Institute * Freehold Art Exchange in New York * The Museum of Transgender Hirstory and Art's inaugural artist residency

Exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions * Reflecting Light Into The Unshadow, Participant Inc. (2018) *To build another world, Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University (2018) * The Right Brain of Darkness, Haverford College (2016) Selected group exhibitions * ''Nobody Promised You Tomorrow,''

(2019) * ''Feminist Histories'',

São Paulo Museum of Art The São Paulo Museum of Art (, or ') is an art museum in São Paulo, Brazil. It is well known for the architectural significance of its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo Bardi. It is considered a landmark of ...

(2019) * ''Face of the Future'', Rubin Museum (2018) * ''Trigger: Gender As A Tool And A Weapon'',

(2017)

References

External links

Artists' website

Tuesday Smillie, "Seized by the Left Hand," chapbook (2019/2020)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smillie, Tuesday 1981 births Living people Artists from Boston Artists from New York City Oregon College of Art and Craft alumni American interdisciplinary artists American transgender women American transgender artists Transgender women artists LGBTQ people from Massachusetts 21st-century American women artists 21st-century American LGBTQ people