margaret smithers-crump: kinship

Exhibit on view November 11th,

viewing extended through December 11th, 2021

The Gallery is opened Thursday through Saturday, 11:00am to 5:00pm but closed Thanksgiving Day (November 25th).

Other times are by appointment through our scheduling tool.

You can also book an appointment by calling 512-937-5921, or emailing Laura@camibagallery.com.

Location: 6448 Hwy 290 E., Suite A102, Austin, TX 78723

Exhibit Walk-through

Gallerist Troy Campa in conversation with Margaret Smithers-Crump, discussing the process and inspiration of the artist.

View this 40 minute video on our YouTube Channel here.

Kinship, the exhibit of sculptural paintings by Margaret Smithers-Crump, opens on Thursday November 11th with a reception from 6pm to 8:30pm. The artworks in this exhibit explore the generative potential of interdependent relationships that are framed within the context of life cycles. As always, Margaret is concerned with the interconnected relationship of Earth’s diverse life forms and ecosystems that are so vital to the planet’s survival.

Visually the artworks in Kinship continue the stylistic language Margaret has developed and used over the last 20 years to bring attention to the plight of our world. As she states in her exhibit statement, “Every aspect of nature is inextricably linked and intrinsically valuable”

 Artist’s Exhibit Statement :

Every aspect of nature is inextricably linked and intrinsically valuable. Unfortunately, much of humanity today looks at the natural world in terms of how it can be utilized and exploited. Our collective insensitivity to the complex and delicate ecological networks that help all life thrive puts everyone at risk — human or otherwise. However, when our culture allows for a greater understanding and respect for these relationships, there is hope.

Kinship explores the generative potential of interdependent relationships that are framed within the context of life cycles. Some of these connections are subtle and nuanced while others are challenged by momentous transformations such as birth, migration and metamorphosis. As such, these artworks reference circles, cycles, and celestial bodies, highlighting the dynamic intersectionality and perpetual motion that underscores all elements of nature. Investigating the movement of cosmic kinships inspired the suspended sculptural works that rotate with the slightest air currents, casting reflections using tiny shards of mirror and gold leaf as they spin. Created with semi-transparent Plexiglas, each work in the exhibition uses light as both material and metaphor, illuminating the intimate connections spanning from the most infinitesimal organisms on Earth to the life-giving radiance of our entire cosmos. This allusion to our experiences with—and within—the celestial sphere begs the question: what is possible when we reconsider the boundaries of our environment and the mutual sphere(s) of influence we share with our wider world?

 About the artist:

Margaret Smithers-Crump is a Canadian artist based in Houston, Texas. She received her BFA in Painting from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio in 1973. For the last twenty years, Smithers- Crump has been exploring the creative potential of Plexiglas, in both painting and installations.

Smithers-Crump has had a series of solo and group exhibitions throughout Texas and the United States including her recent one person exhibitions at the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, Galveston Art Center, Galveston, TX; Imperial Center for the Arts and Sciences, Rocky Mount, NC; Penn College of Technology - Penn State, Williamsport, PA; and Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX.

Additionally, she was one of eight artists selected from across North America for a solo exhibition at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH, in 2016. Her one-person exhibition, “In Silence”, was on view at the Beeville Art Museum in Texas in 2017.