Gail Goldsmith: Pieces from Lifetime
Shin Gallery
September 10 – October 18, 2020
Inspired by people, animals, and children’s toys, 86-year-old Gail Goldsmith has been creating fantastic figurative and abstract sculptures from unglazed clay for decades, yet she has remained under the greater art world’s radar for most of that time. Many of her supporters thought that the Goldsmith’s 2011 retrospective at the New York Studio School would finally bring her the attention that she deserved, but it didn’t. Now, however, might be a better time, as the revisionist moment for seasoned women artists is ripe.
Rediscovered by gallerist Hong Gyu Shin when he saw some eye-catching sculptures in the window of her Chinatown studio while passing by it last year, the artist’s current solo show recreates the raw, poetic sensibility that the dealer found when he first entered her domain. Featuring artwork that dates back some fifty years, the exhibition displays Goldsmith’s inventive use of stoneware clay and assemblage for creating fascinating, psychological pieces. Placing human heads cast in clay atop the slab-constructed bodies of beasts and pressing the patterns of fabrics and found objects into clay-fashioned aprons and armor, Goldsmith visualizes a world that has its origin in the depths of her memory and imagination.