Michael E. Smith makes installations from familiar objects — sneakers, buckets, product packaging, glass — retooling materials that remain, in his words, “stubbornly themselves.” He tests the way objects interact when placed together, describing a successful sculptural maneuver as finding “the other halves of objects,” two unlikely things that, once paired, seem to have been waiting for each other.

In The makings of you — named after a Curtis Mayfield track — Smith’s interventions surface the gallery’s strangeness, emphasizing features usually meant to disappear,  including vents, outlets, and lighting. He has created a tableau out of humble things — arranged, paired, and lit in ways that make them feel startlingly alive. The objects seem to look back.

Smith’s installation references the Best Way Car Wash at 202 River Street, a self-service car wash that shares a property line with MASS MoCA. Smith sees the car wash as a piece of Americana and a witness to the realities of everyday life.  He folds it into the exhibition as form and content, drawing attention to the relationship between this contemporary art institution and what lies just outside its walls.

A collaboration with the Clark Art Institute, this exhibition of new work by Michael E. Smith is curated by Emma Poveda, M.A. candidate in the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.

About the Artist:
Michael E. Smith lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Kunst Museum Winterthur, Henry Moore Institute, Pinakothek der Moderne, Vienna Secession, Kunsthalle Basel, SMAK Ghent, Sculpture Center, La Triennale di Milano, CAPC Bordeaux, and Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, among others. He participated in the 58th Venice Biennale, the 2022 Whitney Biennial, and the 2012 Whitney Biennial. His work is held in permanent collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hammer Museum, Walker Art Center, SFMoMA, MCA Chicago, SMAK Ghent, and Ludwig Forum Aachen.

Michael E. Smith: The makings of you is made possible by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in support of MASS MoCA and the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art. Support for this exhibition is provided by Kathy & Brian Schultz with The Connie Frank Foundation, in memory of Billy Poveda, and The Rosen Family Fund.

Image courtesy of the artist.