Baker Artist Portfolios

Julia Kim Smith is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has been featured by Angry Asian Man, Animal, Art F City, artnet News, Baltimore Magazine, The Baltimore Sun, GQ, Hypebeast, Hyperallergic, Juxtapoz, kottke.org, Ms., Paper Magazine, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and international media outlets. Her films have received premieres at Slamdance Film Festival, Cinequest Film Festival, Center For Asian American Media CAAMFest, San Francisco Documentary Film Festival, Brooklyn Film Festival, and Joe’s Pub. Smith has exhibited nationally and internationally with new media and feminist artists Renee Cox, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Kate Durbin, Hasan Elahi, Coco Fusco, Poppy Jackson, Rupi Kaur, Sarah Maple, Haley Morris-Cafiero, Phranc, Joyce J. Scott, Annie Sprinkle, Diane Torr, Sue Williams, Martha Wilson, and Barbara Zucker.

Smith is a former A.I.R. Gallery artist, Rubys Artist Grant recipient, Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award recipient, two-time Creative Capital semi-finalist, and three-time Sondheim Prize semi-finalist. Smith received her Master of Fine Arts in Visual Communication from The University of Michigan where she was the recipient of a Rackham Fellowship. She worked as senior designer at the PBS and NPR affiliate WETA, Washington, DC, and has led design workshops at Maryland Institute College of Art. Her 3-D greeting card line SLANT was honored with the LOUIE Award and has been featured nationally at arango, Art Institute of Chicago, Baltimore Museum of Art, Kate’s Paperie, National Building Museum, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Store Ltd, Urban Outfitters, and Whitney Museum of American Art Store Next Door. She is a Creative Alliance trustee emeritus.

ARTIST STATEMENT
Through my work, I address issues of racism, sexism, misrepresentation, and underrepresentation through traditional and new media. I am interested in text, meaning, and the pervasive influence of the internet and its tools on society. I use all to inform my practice and to question what constitutes truth–and whose truth?

My influences include artists Kota Ezawa, Jenny Holzer, and Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, and writers Cathy Park Hong, Jay Caspian Kang, Maggie Nelson, Antero Pietila, Jess Row, and Wesley Yang.

PRESS

Hypotheses, International Council of Museums research blog, Romane James, “Clothing the Pandemic,” April 2023

How to Kiss Again by Isaac Oliver and Julia Kim Smith featured on Joe’s Pub YouTube channel and IGTV, New York, NY, 2021

Google Sex featured on Bmore Art Instagram feed, Cara Ober, March 18, 2021

Cancelled Collective Actions Open Letter
The New York Times, Zachary Small “The Whitney Canceled Their Exhibition. Now Those Artists Want Reform.”, September 17, 2020

“a stupendous achievement of minimalist, conceptual art that ought to forever lay to rest the idea that such work is no more than a dry intellectual exercise. This is art of unflinching intelligence, great passion and overwhelming emotional impact.”
Glenn McNatt, The Baltimore Sun

“a conceptual visionary...uniquely brainy-funny-edgy-naughty style...Julia is an interdisciplinary maker, switching deftly between performance, video, film, photography, and printmaking. We love the way Julia’s images make us think, shudder and laugh, sometimes all at once.”
Betsy Boyd, Baltimore Fishbowl

“cheeky...brilliant”
Wheelbarrow, Kidrobot KRonikle

“worst portrayal and rip off to fame ever....”
comment posted via Facebook on Kidrobot KRonikle

“what I see in [the artists] is a cohesive and vitally important social force....The artists in the show all inject a twenty-first century impetus into that most enduring of seventies feminist conceptions: the personal is political.”
Celebrating Kindred Spirits and Strange Bedfellows: A.I.R. National & International Exhibition
Curator: Catherine J. Morris, Brooklyn Museum, Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art