ANNE SMITH
ANNE SMITH is an American artist based in London. Throughout her career she has worked as a potter, teacher designer and illustrator. A longtime passion for Persian/Indian miniature painting led Smith to study it’s traditional methods and techniques. This rekindled an interest in materials and process instilled by her formative years spent as a ceramicist.
Simple themes relating to vessels and nature reference the documentary studies that inspired them. Isolated and observed, these forms vibrate with intensity. The compressed scale of the page suggests a flat printed space, subverted by a lateral blend of marks and elements. Smith’s practice incorporates the spirit and formality of the miniature tradition, while pushing beyond it to explore her diverse personal language.
Anne holds a BFA in Ceramics from Boston University, Program in Artisanry and MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University. She is the recipient of the Visual Artist’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts; She is both a Fellow and a finalist for the Massachusetts Artis’s Foundation grant. Her work is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Smithsonian Institution and the Boston Public Library, The International Museum of Ceramic Art, and het Kruithuis Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst in the Netherlands. She has taught at RISD, Phillips Academy, Andover, Ma. and Mass Art and has attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Cite des Arts Internationale in Paris and the European Ceramics Workcenter in the Netherlands.
100 CUPS
Intended as a segue from one mode of working to another, Anne Smith’s “100 Cups” pay homage to her deep background in ceramics. Akin to throwing pottery on the wheel, she paints the same cup form repeatedly, allowing subtle differences to occur. A matrix of repetition harmonizes her numerous variations. Without sacrificing the decorative familiarity of the cup, each piece defines it’s own unique intimate domain.