“Lake Street 1985” by Yvette Kaiser Smith

17.5’’ x 17.5’’ x 2’’

Digital pigment print on 1/8" acrylic, laser-cut acrylic, nylon spacers, capped hardware

$2500

I am an artist who uses numbers. Employing sequences from numbers pi or e, I create wall-based geometric abstractions, where values of digits direct a composition’s formal structure: placement of line and shape, structure of a grid or pattern, color relationships. I look for simple and direct ways to combine industrial felts with acrylic sheet scraps as slow stitching, a traditional craft element found across cultures and time, binds layers together. Recent works drift through multiple artforms in varying degrees. They combine languages of sculpture, embroidery, and weaving. They may allude to painting, drawing, or tapestry. Always straddling two worlds, the works reside on the periphery of established artforms. This I believe to be a consequence of immigrating when young, to perpetually float between two cultures, always residing in between, never fully of one or the other. I spent over 20 years creating works, based on identity narratives, by crocheting fiberglass. Number sequences entered as part of an expanding identity dialogue. In 2016, due to a temporary loss of workspace, I transitioned the math to laser-cut acrylic forms. Having to leave my home studio for the laser-cut work, armed with a new iPhone, I developed an obsession with photographing Lake Street. While my studio practice was still focused on the laser-cutter, I had an opportunity to present a few images in a group show. This led to a body of work that combines digital prints on transparency film with laser-cut acrylic structures.

Learn more at the artist’s website: www.yvettekaisersmith.com

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