Estiarte brings together a sample of recent works by Kiki Smith in sculpture, drawings, photographs and engravings whose common denominator is the use of the human body as a means of vindicating gender and identity.

The work of Kiki Smith (Nuremberg, 1954) regards the human body as a means for experiencing the world, but also as an object on which medicine, politics or religion have acted. Kiki Smith seeks the human soul in the essence of the body, in its hidden functioning, delving into the nervous system, the digestive system, the circulatory system and the urogenital system in order to show us viscera and biological labyrinths, correlates of the human experience. At the beginning of the nineties Kiki Smith produced a series of works which, from sculpture, drawing, painting and engraving, show various states of the female nude impinging on its fragmentation as a metaphor of extreme violence on women. Her work has a powerful artisan component, with a direct involvement in the processes of creation: "I am moved by the physical character of things, by their physicality. I am very attracted to the history of the decorative arts, the way people have produced objects throughout history, but that is not all. I would say that creativity, procreation, or better, technology, are basic things which humans are surrounded by today," says the artist.


The exhibition in Estiarte consists of Teeth drawing, two succulent paintings on paper from 2003 showing the avidity of a mouth devouring fruit, as well as Carrier, a delicious watercolour from 2001. On the other hand, four photographs from the series Flower produced in 2007 whose dolls surrounded by flowers indicate a somewhat sinister state. Two sculptures in porcelain, Woman with snake and Woman with owl, produced by the artist in 2003 and 2004 respectively, represents women being attacked and eaten by wild animals, in a disturbing contrast between the delicate surface of the material and the terrible subject being shown. Finally, a selection of her best etchings in the last five years shows us the devotion which Kiki Smith feels for paper, editions of books and drawing and print.

Various different museums have held monographic exhibitions of Kiki Smith, among the most important being the 1997 exhibition in the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin and, a year later, in the Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover. In 1999, she exhibited in the Saint Louis Art Museum of Missouri and in 2000 in the Nassau County Museum of Art of New York. In 2001, the Ulmer Museum of Ulm showed her work and in 2003 the New York MOMA organised a major exhibition of her work, which can be seen in the best public and private collections in the world.