Artist Alexandria Smith has created an immersive multi-media environment using wallpaper, paintings on wood, found objects, and sculpture. It will be accompanied by an original site-specific composition //windowed// by Liz Gre.

Smith’s work explores Black identity through the interweaving of collective memory, autobiography, and history. Her bold paintings merge figure and abstraction. The artist explores the question, “how can one imagine oneself in the future of a past in which one has been invisible?”

Smith and Gre researched Black history in New Hampshire and visited the Portsmouth African Burial Ground, among other sites. Gre has composed a sound piece that recreates the site-specific environments of Manchester and Portsmouth. It will evolve over time to include recordings from visitors in response to the installation.

To be a collaborator, call 978-300-0933 and leave a voice message using your cell phone. Please respond to the following prompt in under 1 minute:

“Where do you see reflections of your wholeness here?”

By recording your response, you acknowledge and understand that all elements of your audio submission may be used by Liz Gre (composer) to contribute to a new piece of music to be played/performed in the exhibition at a later date. Do not provided any identifying information and understand that Liz Gre will anonymize any identifying information that is recorded.

About the artists

Alexandria Smith (born 1981, Bronx, New York) is a mixed media visual artist based in London and New York. She earned her BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University; MA in art education from New York University; and MFA from Parsons The New School for Design. Smith’s recent exhibitions include her first solo museum exhibit, Monuments to an Effigy at the Queens Museum and a site-specific commission for the Davis Museum at Wellesley College. Alexandria is currently Head of Painting at the Royal College of Art in London.

Liz Gre (b. 1991, Omaha, Nebraska) is a composer, performance artist, and vocalist writing genre-less compositions with Black Women for Black Women. Her work has been commissioned by numerous organizations including Creative Time, Tate Britain, and the Washington National Opera. Gre is a PhD student at City, University of London.

This exhibition is sponsored by Hitchiner Manufacturing Co. Inc.