Barbara T. Smith

Barbara T. Smith (1931, Pasadena) is a visual artist who for over five decades has produced a body of work in performance, painting and sculptural installation. Smith studied painting at Pomona College in the early 1950s and later studied independently with Emerson Woelffer at Chouinard Art Institute. She was part of UC Irvine’s first class of the Masters of Arts program (1969-71), where she developed her practice alongside her peers Nancy Buchanan and Chris Burden. Smith spent formative years in her artistic development as a volunteer and then Educator at the Pasadena Art Museum where Walter Hopps encouraged her artistic career. Throughout her career, Smith has been involved with important alternative art spaces including F Space, the Woman’s Building, and 18th St. Arts Center.

Recent exhibitions include The Way to Be (2023) at The GETTY CENTER, Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982 (2023) at LACMA, how we are in time and space: Nancy Buchanan, Marcia Hafif, Barbara T. Smith (2022) at Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, and Holy Squash (2021) at Cirrus Gallery in Los Angeles. Notable past exhibitions include multiple shows with WACK!; State of Mind (2011,2013) at The Orange County Museum of Art, Bronx Museum, and Smart Museum of Chicago; Under the Big Black Sun (2010) at MOCA Los Angeles; and Out of Actions: Between Performance & the Object, 1947-1979 (1998) at MOCA Los Angeles and MAK-Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. Smith will have a solo exhibition opening in October 2023 at the ICA LA curated by Jenelle Porter.