For Tell You What, Mickey Smith will be installing several works including In Memoriam, Known Knowns, Known Unknowns, Unknown Unknowns, and Collocation No. 17 (VOGUE).  In Memoriam is made using hundreds of legal tomes stacked on the floor.  VOGUE is an archival print on canvas of hundreds of rainbow colored annals of Vogue magazines.  Known Knowns, Known Unknowns, Unknown Unknowns is a print picturing the top of Donald Rumsfeld’s head with shelves of books behind him. 

Mickey Smith’s installations and photographs are commentaries on the changing role of the academic tome.  Once a symbol of learning and of the academic elite, books are becoming kitschy objects collected by people who want to appear to read.  Smith uses books as minimalist sculptures commenting on this trend and the academic move toward digital versions.  She is entering the post-digital debate on information storage.  What information should be kept in its physical form, stored digitally, or allowed to be lost?  Her thoughtful works highlight the trend towards online academia and away from the nostalgic relics of the library while archiving the objects and presenting them as sculptural forms.  

Mickey Smith is represented by INVISIBLE-EXPORTS in New York City and has exhibited at The Guggenheim Gallery of Chapman University in California, the Mary Walker Gallery, the hpgrp Gallery, the Jen Bekman Gallery, the Pingyao International Photography Festival, and the Frank Stone Gallery.  She has had solo exhibitions at INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, Georgia College & State University Museum, Alvar Alto Library, PRO ARTE Institute, Pushkin House, and the Center for Photography at Woodstock.  Her awards include a fellowship for photography from the McKnight Foundation, a permanent commission from the University of Florida, grants from the LMCC Manhattan Community Arts Fund, CEC Artslink, and FORECAST Public Art Affairs.