source: kow-berlininfo

Michael E. Smith was born in 1977 in Detroit, MI, USA. His objects and pictures as well as his videos seem like physical reconstructions of emotional disfigurement, his exhibitions like an archeology of humanity. He counters the ecological and economic disaster of our era with a materialism of basic needs, displayed as a layout of ruined bodies. Smith studies at the College for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit from 2004 until 2006. In 2008 he graduates from Jessica Stockholders’ class at the Department for Sculpture at Yale University, New Haven. His latest exhibitions include the Whitney Biennial (2012), Culturgest Lisbon (2012), Les Ateliers de Rennes – Biennale D’Art Contemporain (2012), Ludwig Forum Aachen (2013) and CAPC musée d’art contemporain, Bordeaux (2013). Smith lives and works in New Hampshire.
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source: contemporaryartdaily

The work of Michael E. Smith effaces humanity, replacing it with the physiology and psychology of things. His sculpture and images rely on a frugal repertoire of materials that satisfy basic bodily necessity. Re-contextualized, he subjects these objects to the vacancy of the exhibition site. Removed from the social world, solace is found through their own persisting isolation. Smith’s objects look like physical reconstructions of emotional vulnerability and violation, the exhibition functioning as an archaeological scan of the human condition.
Michael E. Smith holds an M.F.A. from Yale University and currently lives and works in New Hampshire. Recent solo exhibitions include CAPC Museé d’art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France; Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany; St. Louis Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO; Monchehaus Museum, Goslar, Germany. Forthcoming exhibitions include, The Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy; etablissement d’en face projects, Brussels. His work was featured in the 2012 Whitney Biennial, Sculpture Center’s ‘A Disagreeable Object’ (both NY) and ‘Le Silence. Une Fiction’, Nouveau Musée Nationalde, Monaco, Monaco.