COPYRIGHT ©MARIE SMITH 2024. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ARTIST STATEMENT

Portrait of Marie Smith, Horniman Gardens, London 2023, ©Anselm Ebulue

Marie Smith (she/they) is a neurodivergent visual artist and writer born, living, and working in London. Smith graduated in 2017 with an MA in History in Art with Photography at Birkbeck, University of London. 

Being a neurodivergent person with dyspraxia and anxiety has informed how they navigate the world. Marie’s practice incorporates audio, digital, and analogue media alongside text as a form of visual language that addresses identity, the body, nature, sustainability, mental health, and well-being.

Marie’s lens-based approach incorporates low-toxic plant, food, or herb-based developers to process their analogue film. Due to this methodology not being transferable to developing colour film, Marie mostly works with black and white and camera-less film processes.

Marie has been exploring audio and workshops with collectives in an attempt to deconstruct and reframe their position in institutional landscapes such as archives, museums, and galleries.

Marie is a Lecturer at Kingston University London and has previously lectured at Goldsmiths - University of London, and London College of Communication.


EDUCATION

2015 to 2017: MA in History of Art with Photography - Birkbeck, University of London

2000 to 2003: BA (Hons) Fine Art - University Of Chichester ​


SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

London Art Fair - Photo50 - Grafting: The Land and the Artist, curated by Revolv Collective, London/UK, January 2024

Female in Focus Photography Awards 2022 - 1854 Media/British Journal of Photography, The Bridge and Tunnel Gallery, New York/USA, Nov 2023

Bloc Projects - Bloc Billboard commission, Body In Space, Sheffield/UK, October 2023

Horniman Museum and Gardens, Digital Exhibition - Extraction: In Conversation with Anna Atkins, London/UK, October 2023

Female in Focus Photography Awards 2022 - 1854 Media/British Journal of Photography, Photofusion Photography Centre/UK, October 2022

New Forest National Park Artist Residency exhibition, spudWORKS, Hampshire/UK, October 2022

Invisible Britain: This Separated Isle, Impressions Gallery, Bradford/UK, July 2022

Invisible Britain: This Separated Isle, Street Level Gallery, Glasgow/Scotland, March 2022

Invisible Britain: This Separated Isle, Ffotogallery, Cardiff/Wales, January 2022

West Coast Photo Festival 2021 - Cumbrian Focus - Chapter 2, Cumbria/UK, October 2021

Peckham 24 - Solidarity, Copeland Gallery, London/UK, September 2021

Salon 2021 - Photofusion Photography Centre, London/UK, July 2021

Hang Ten - Art Lacuna, London/UK, curated by Tom Medwell, May 2021

Expanding Perspectives: A creative response to mental health, City University London, London/UK, March 2020

Earth Mother / Mother Earth - Don’t Smile online exhibition, April 2020

Postcards from Great Britain - Shutter Hub, Haarlem/Netherlands, April 2020

Lenscratch - online exhibition: ‘Your favourite photograph from 2019’, curated and selected by Aline Smithson - Lenscratch, January 2020

Portrait Salon 2019 - Photo North Festival - Harrogate/UK, December 2019

Portrait Salon 2019 - Royal Photographic Society - Bristol/UK, November 2019

Time to Think, Shutter Hub Exhibition, Festival Pil’Ours, St Gilles Croix de Vie - France, November 2019

Der Greif, selection 12 for online exhibition, Guest Room - selected by Fiona Rogers, October 2019

Too Tired Boston - slideshow exhibition, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University Boston/USA, October 2019

Pic.London - After School - Collective Strategies, Lewisham Art House - London/UK, October 2019

Open Source 07 - Digital Window Gallery, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool/UK, May 2019

Too Tired Warsaw - slideshow exhibition, Leica 6x7 Gallery Warszawa, Warsaw/Poland, March 2019

Everything I Ever Learnt - Shutter Hub Exhibition - Cambridge University/UK, March 2019


COLLECTIONS

Extraction: In Conversation with Anna Atkins by Marie Smith, a bespoke photobook of 33 cyanotypes by Smith and bound by Folium Publishing, acquired by Horniman Museum and Gardens, December 2023

The Fog Has Lifted by Marie Smith, printed and distributed by + KPG | Monolith Editions, has been acquired by the following institutions in the USA, Harvard University, Haverford College, Hampshire University, Maryland Institute College of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Schomburg Center / New York Public Library, University of Maryland Baltimore, Virginia Commonwealth University


AWARDS

Female in Focus Photography Awards 2022 - Single Image Winner, 1854 Media/British Journal of Photography, August 2022

Arts Council England - Lottery Project Fund, for We Belong Here, May 2022

BJP Portrait of Britain 2021, Portrait of Tina from Whispering for Help, December 2021

Firecracker Photographic Grant 2021 - Highly commended for the series Whispering for Help, October 2021

Arts Council England - Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP), for What can we learn from nature and environmentalism? April 2021

Arts Council England - Lottery Project Fund, for Whispering for Help, December 2020




ARTIST TALKS | INTERVIEWS I ARTICLES

“I am the subject and the maker”: Marie Smith on documenting the Black non-binary body in nature, The Wanderer - It’s Nice That!, October 2024

manual.editions - case studies 2 - In Conversation with Anna Atkins by Marie Smith, April 2024

Extractivism/Activism: Art, Activism and Ecological Extraction, a performance of The Wanderer - Paul Mellon Centre, London/UK, March 2024

C41 Journal, book review by Laura Bivolaru of The Fog Has Lifted, December 2023

HYPER FUNCTIONAL, ULTRA HEALTHY, PANEL DISCUSSION: CRIPPING THE ART WORLD, Somerset House, London/UK, February 2023

What is next? How do we turn intentions into actions through social justice practice and curation, London College of Communication - UAL in support of British ArtNetwork, London/UK, November 2022

PLACE MAKING, Imagining alternative futures: embodied place-making in photographic practice by Hannah Geddes, Ardesia Project, October 2022

Where The Leaves Fall, #THENATUREKIND, Interview with Marie Smith, March 2022

Interview: Marie Smith on her practice and Whispering for help - Too Tired Project, June 2021

The therapeutic potential of photography, a Roundtable discussion with Daniel Regan and Becky Warnock, British Journal of Photography - Issue 7902, April 2021

The Photographers’ Gallery - Tami Aftab and Marie Smith with Emma Bowkett (online), What is the intersection between art and advocacy? What role does photography play in creating agency? London/UK March 2021

The Centre for Photographers of Color (CPoC): In Conversation with Aaron Turner, March 2021

Splash and Grab: Interview with Hannah Geddes, Marie Smith - Blown out like a candle, 2019