I created 6 FT EVIL EYE MASK in 2020 for MASKerade Baltimore–a fundraiser hosted by the Baltimore Community Foundation's LGBTQ Fund and Maryland Art Place to raise awareness and funds for issues facing the LGBTQ community in Baltimore. Both BCF and MAP are non-profits that I support.
 
I was interested in the way MASKerade encouraged artists to explore masks as form and fashion, and as political and social signifiers. As the daughter of Korean immigrants in the US, I have a long, self-preserving interest in fashion as social signifier. In the groundbreaking book Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, Cathy Park Hong touched on this role of fashion when she wrote about David Dao, the Asian-American doctor who was brutalized and dragged off the United flight in 2017. She compared his black Patagonia sweater and khaki cap to camouflage, code for “I am not one to take up space or make a scene.” Horrifying because he looked like Dad to many of us.
 
I can see parallels between how the Asian community has been scapegoated for COVID and how the gay community was scapegoated for AIDS…. 6 FT EVIL EYE MASK does not blend in. The mask takes up space and makes a scene. Inspired by Met Gala gowns, voguing, and Rupaul’s Drag Race, I tried to create a mask with bling that demands us to look and pay attention.

EXHIBITION
Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD, 2020
MASKerade: Benefit for Baltimore Community Foundation’s LGBTQ Fund

The photo-collages in Transit are drawn from scans of Julia Kim Smith’s father’s slides from the period 1955-1973, the period before her parents became naturalized American citizens. If Smith’s father’s photographs were his way of “claiming” America and his life in the United States, her photo-collages are a way of reclaiming her family’s immigrant history and herstory. She cull images from the slides and layers them to create new meanings and perspectives, the perspective of one who is “over there” but does not yet belong. Taken as a whole, the photo-collages examine what it means to become American.

The series title Transit references Anna Seghers’ fictional novel Transit based on Seghers’ experiences as a German refugee in the 1930s. Peter Conrad, in his introduction to a reissue of Seghers’ Transit, noted “The novel’s blunt but richly allusive title suggests that these are people in transition, and not only between countries: they commute up and down on what theologians once saw as the chain of being, some aspiring to the status of spirits, others behaving and even coming to look like beasts.” Smith’s Transit echoes Seghers’ and serves as a paean to the vulnerability and complexity, the spirits and the beasts, of her immigrant family.

EXHIBITION
Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2021
Six Artists: Abstract Perspectives, The 26th Annual Juried Contemporary Art Exhibition
Curators: Christine Y. Kim, Curator of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Alma Ruiz, Senior Fellow, Center for Business and Management of the Arts, Claremont Graduate University, and independent curator

American As Fuck appropriates phrases typically associated with the right-wing and explores the boundaries and intersectionality of what it means to be an American and a patriot.

EXHIBITION
Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA, 2021
Call & Response: Craft as a Tool for Activism, Virtual Exhibition
Curators: Glenn Adamson, Ebitenyefa Baralaye, Nate Watson

PUBLICATION
Printed Matter, New York, NY 2020

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

Think locally, act locally.

Sticker, T-shirt, and bookmark made in Baltimore: created and designed by Julia Kim Smith, printed by Momentum and Indigo Ink, and sold exclusively at Atomic Books and Sideshow at The American Visionary Art Museum. Every sticker and T-shirt makes an impact: We donate 100% of profits to The Creative Alliance of Baltimore and the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

The limited edition postcard, commissioned by the The Creative Alliance and printed by Typecast Press, is available in an edition of 200, each signed and numbered by the artist. Text on front reads “Baltimore: Actually, I like it.”; text on back reads “Dearest_______,” to be completed by the sender.

PRESS
Baltimore: Actually, I like it. spotted in John Waters’ Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance!, 2022
Duff Goldman Instagram feed, July 27 2019
Duff Goldman Instagram feed, March 12 2019
Baltimore Creatives Instagram feed, January 3, 2019
American Visionary Art Museum Instagram feed

“A trending unofficial civic slogan declares ‘Baltimore: Actually, I Like It,’ which best captures the mix of resignation and defensiveness that comes from residing in a place long synonymous with what’s wrong with American cities. This may never be a Portlandia-style urban playground, but the raggedy pleasures of Baltimore living are real and durable, and can be found no where else. That’s why we’re here, and why we stay, even though sometimes we all feel like tearing the place down.”
Grist, David Dudley, “Why Baltimore is fighting for its life, again,” April 2015

Community–it’s no walk in the park.

Cylburn Park is a text movie in two acts inspired by and edited from a Baltimore neighborhood’s Google Group daily feed and the media’s coverage of it (below). The texts scroll by at a quick pace as if on a teleprompter screen and include lively exchanges over ducks and racial profiling, offering different perspectives from “bitchy” indeed to high-minded and deeply moving. Cylburn Park is relevant today in Baltimore and beyond as communities struggle to keep it together.

BEST SOMETIMES-RACIST GOOGLE GROUP
“For cringe-worthy entertainment, nothing beats reading the daily feed from the Mount Washington Google Group, the provenance for overly educated people with too much time on their hands and axes to grind. Aside from the mundane stuff–free kids’ toys and recommendations for dentists–the group’s archive of bitchy exchanges over whether to allow ducks to live in the community garden nearly brought some residents to blows. The Group’s Greek chorus really pulls out all the stops when teens from the Pimlico neighborhood are spotted in Mount Washington. Accusations of racial profiling are never funny, but you’ve gotta roll your eyes when Mount Washingtonians call each other ‘moron’ and ‘ass’ as they try to sidestep their own prejudices.”
City Paper’s “Best of Baltimore 2013”

SCREENINGS
2018 Maryland Institute College Of Art, Sondheim Prize Semi-Finalist Exhibition, Baltimore, MD
2015 Official Selection Brooklyn Film Festival, Brooklyn, NY

“The internet poses significant problems in female representation, from pornography to the use of female form in advertising and notably the use of sexually violent language as a form of censorship and aggression towards female expression. Exquisite Corpse presents an array of female artists using both online and material forms for creativity, empowerment, and subversion, whilst reclaiming control of the representation of their bodies.”
Sarah Faraday, Curator, Exquisite Corpse, Fuse Art Space, Bradford, UK and Cologne, Germany

ARTIST STATEMENT
In 2015-16, I participated in Exquisite Corpse, an exhibition at Fuse Art Space in Bradford, UK and Cologne, Germany, featuring the work of hot (professionally hot, that is) fourth-wave feminist artists Rupi Kaur, Kate Durbin, Faith Holland, Poppy Jackson, Sue Williams, among others. The exhibition challenged the misrepresentation of the female form and identity on the internet. I screened Why, a film in which I utilized Google’s search engine’s autocomplete feature to find out what the masses wondered about me, an Asian woman, and discovered unsettling truths, fallacies, desires, and fears about many of us.

In conjunction with Exquisite Corpse, I took over Fuse Art Space’s Instagram account, posting from my series The Daily Pad–images created from Kotex products and blood–for six days, the duration of a period. The Daily Pad is a humorous, Dadaist challenge to those who view female sexuality, including menstruation, as a taboo to shame, censor, and silence. Sometimes the only rational response in the face of irrationality is to stop making sense. 
— Julia Kim Smith

EXHIBITION
Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD, 2020
Merkin Dream

Charles Krause/Reporting Fine Art Gallery at Busboys And Poets, Washington, DC, 2016
Artists United!, Curators: Alan Fern, former director, The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; Mel Hardy, Millennium Arts Salon, Washington, DC; Michael Hodgson, MD, collector, Washington, DC; Charles Krause, Charles Krause/Reporting Fine Art Gallery, Washington, DC; Susan Orlins, author and editor, Street Sense, Washington, DC; Alexssa Todd, Christie’s, New York

A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2016
In The Secret Garden, Curator: Rocio Aranda-Alvarado, Curator, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY

Gold + Beton, Cologne, Germany, 2016
Fuse Art Space, Bradford, UK, 2015
Exquisite Corpse, Curator: Sarah Faraday
Exhibiting Artists: Anastasia Vepreva​, Evelin Stermitz, Faith Holland, Julia Kim Smith, Kate Durbin, ​Lacie Garnes, Poppy Jackson, Rupi Kaur, Sarah Faraday​, Sheena Patel, Sue Williams
Fuse Art Space Instagram takeover: Julia Kim Smith - week of September 21, 2015

PUBLICATION
Beaver The Exhibition The Book, 2020
Forward by Kristen J. Sollée, Editor: Naomi Elena Ramirez

PRESS
Paper Magazine, Layne Weiss, “Exquisite Corpse: Inside Germany’s Powerful Feminist Exhibit,” February 2016
Dazed Digital, UK, Sooanne Berner, “After Cologne Sexual Attacks, Art Show Champions Women,” January 2016
artnet News, Sarah Hyde, “Cologne Art Show Celebrates Women In The Wake Of Attacks,” January 2016
this is tomorrow, UK, Alice Miller, “Exquisite Corpse,” September 2015
Corridor8, UK, Elspeth Mitchell, “Review: Exquisite Corpse, Fuse Art Space,” August 2015

Featuring the genre-busting talent of James Nasty and TT the Artist, The Real Wi-Fi Of Baltimore offers a punny and nuanced view of Baltimore neighborhoods in a short film edited from iPhone screenshots of Wi-Fi network names. The Real Wi-Fi Of Baltimore poses this challenge: Are we connected?

This project is supported in part by a Rubys Artist Project Grant. The Rubys Artist Project Grants were conceived and initiated with start-up funding from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation and are a program of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance.

PRODUCTION NOTE
“Baltimore is the world. The world is Baltimore.”
Your Face In Mine, Jess Row

In the wake of the Freddie Gray uprising, I was traveling around Baltimore, lost and looking for a Wi-Fi connection, and was fascinated by the Wi-Fi network names that came up on my phone. I started taking screenshots which I edited into a short film. Thanks to a Rubys Artist Grant, I was able to remaster the film for projection on the big screen and combine forces with James Nasty and TT the Artist to produce an original soundtrack for the film, “Are U Connected?”–both a question and a challenge.
— Julia Kim Smith, Director

SCREENINGS
2022 A.I.R. Gallery, A.I.R. Currents: Identity Politics, Brooklyn, NY
Curators: Christian Camacho-Light and Roxana Fabius

2017 Official Selection Slamdance Film Festival, Park City, UT
2017 Official Selection Cinequest Film Festival, San Jose, CA
2017 Official Selection Calgary Underground Film Festival, Calgary, Canada
2017 Maryland Institute College Of Art, Sondheim Prize Semi-Finalist Exhibition, Baltimore, MD
Vimeo Curated Collection: Comedy

PRESS
We Are Moving Stories, Carmela Baranowska, “Slamdance - The Real Wi-Fi Of Baltimore,” January 2017
Deadline Hollywood, Diana Lodderhose, Dominic Patten, “Slamdance 2017 Unveils Special Screenings,  Beyond & Shorts Program,” December 2016
Rubys Media And Performing Arts Grantees 2016, Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance
kottke.org, Jason Kottke, “The Real Wi-Fi Of Baltimore,” November 2015 (The Real Wi-Fi Of Baltimore rough cut)
Good Morning Silicon Valley, Levi Sumagaysay, “Off Topic,” November 2015 (The Real Wi-Fi Of Baltimore rough cut)
Holy Kaw, Guy Kawasaki, “Mapping Baltimore By Wifi Names,” November 2015 (The Real Wi-Fi Of Baltimore rough cut)
Baltimore Fishbowl, Rachel Monroe, “Lifeline: Wu Tang LAN And Other Great Wifi Network Names In Baltimore,” November 2015 (The Real Wi-Fi Of Baltimore rough cut)

Receipts calls out and takes ownership of Asian and Asian-American slurs in a series of faux Asian-style scrolls featuring documented racist slurs received on sales receipts from Chick-fil-A, Hooters, and Papa John’s. 

EXHIBITION
Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA, 2021
Call & Response: Craft as a Tool for Activism, Virtual Exhibition
Curators: Glenn Adamson, Ebitenyefa Baralaye, Nate Watson

Korean Cultural Center, Beijing, China, 2017
Time Zone Converter, Curators: Joo Yeon Woo and Xi Zhang
Sponsored by the Korean government’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea

Korean Cultural Center, Joo Yeon Woo and Xi Zhang, Time Zone Converter catalog, December 2017

A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2017
Gathering Differences, A.I.R. National Exhibition, Curator: Helga Christoffersen, Assistant Curator, New Museum, New York, NY

“The 5th edition of CURRENTS presents an exhibition in which artists respond to the theme of ABORTION. In this turbulent moment in history, abortion remains a signifier of people's ownership over their bodies, being as urgent a subject as any of the issues that now consume us.”
Barbara Zucker, Curator, Currents: Abortion, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

ARTIST STATEMENT
Selfie Mirror is a participatory installation piece: A hand mirror is mounted on a microphone stand with the words “In Trump’s America, I am worth nothing.” etched on the front of the mirror and “I am secretly going to burn this thing down from the inside.” etched on the back. A piece of rope is tied to the mirror in a hangman’s noose and an enamel American flag pin is mounted to the mirror.
 
The work borrows from “Ways I Am Preparing For A Trump Presidency,” an essay by Blythe Roberson.* In Trump’s America, I am alarmed by the rise and normalization of hate crimes and violence. I am alarmed our democracy is teetering into fascism. I am concerned for our future. Diversity is America’s strength, and our diversity is threatened.
 
My hope is that when viewers get close to Selfie Mirror and look for themselves, they’ll see an image of themselves, and of others, in a different light.
— Julia Kim Smith

*Blythe Roberson, “Ways I Am Preparing For A Trump Presidency,” The New Yorker, November 15, 2016.

EXHIBITION
Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD, 2020
Merkin Dream

A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2018
Currents: Abortion, Curator: Barbara Zucker, Co-Founder, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

Daily Trumpet, Curator: Jonathan Horowitz, March 9, 2018

SpaceCamp, Baltimore, MD, 2017
LabBodies Performance Art Review: Freedom, Curators: Dr. H. Corona and Dr. A. Pinkston

PRESS
Ms., Nicholl Paratore, “Visualizing Reproductive Justice Under Trump” (A.I.R. Gallery Currents: Abortion), February 2018
Artforum, “Artguide: Must-See New York” (A.I.R. Gallery Currents: Abortion), February 2018
BmoreArt, Angela Carroll, “Envisioning And Embodying Freedom,” November 2017
Baltimore Beat, Maura Callahan, “LabBodies’ Third Annual Performance Art Review Channels Pain Into Resistance,” November 2017

Julia Kim Smith utilizes Google’s search engine's autocomplete feature to find out what people are wondering about her, an Asian woman, and discovers unsettling abstractions, truths, fallacies, desires, and fears about all of us. Why is a compilation of 24 of the search engine results.

SELECTED SCREENINGS
2018 Maryland Institute College Of Art, Sondheim Prize Semi-Finalist Exhibition, Baltimore, MD
2017 Feminist Art Conference, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada
2016 Gold + Beton, Exquisit Corpse, Cologne, Germany
2015 Fuse Art Space, Exquisite Corpse, Bradford, UK
Curator: Sarah Faraday
Exhibiting Artists: Anastasia Vepreva, Evelin Stermitz, Faith Holland, Julia Kim Smith, Kate Durbin, Lacie Garnes, Poppy Jackson, Rupi Kaur, Sarah Faraday, Sheena Patel, Sue Williams

2014-2015 Institute for Women and Art, Rutgers University, MTV: Momentum Technology Video and Momentum: Women/Art/Technology, New Brunswick, NJ

2014 Official Selection Center For Asian American Media CAAMFest, San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, CA
2013 DUMBO Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY

2013 Washington Project for the Arts, Pepco Edison Place Gallery, Experimental Media 2013: Cyber In Securities, Washington, DC
Curator: Lisa Moren, Professor of Visual Art, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Exhibiting Artists: Birgit Bachler, Walter Langelaar, Owen Mundy, and Tim Schwartz; Channel TWo (CH2): Adam Trowbridge and Jessica Westbrook, with Jesus Duran; Heather Dewey-Hagborg; Hasan Elahi; The Force of Freedom with Dave Young; Taylor Hokanson; Ricarda McDonald and Donna Szoke; Lexie Mountain; Preemptive Media: Beatriz de Costa, Jamie Schulte and Brooke Singer; David Rokeby; Julia Kim Smith; WhiteFeather

2013 Baltimore Artscape, Slippage, Center for the Arts Gallery, Towson University, Towson, MD
Curator: Daniel Belasco, Curator, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, State University of New York

PUBLICATION
Beaver The Exhibition The Book, 2020
Forward by Kristen J. Sollée, Editor: Naomi Elena Ramirez

PRESS
Media-N: Journal of the New Media Caucus, Lisa Moren, “Algorithmic Pollution: Artists Working With Dataveillance And Societies Of Control,” October 2017
Feminist Art Conference, Valérie Frappier, “Meet The Artists FAC 2017: Julia Kim Smith,” December 2016
Paper Magazine,  Layne Weiss, “Exquisite Corpse: Inside Germany’s Powerful Feminist Exhibit,” February 2016
Dazed Digital, UK, Sooanne Berner, “After Cologne Sexual Attacks, Art Show Champions Women,” January 2016
artnet News, Sarah Hyde, “Cologne Art Show Celebrates Women In The Wake Of Attacks,” January 2016
this is tomorrow, UK, Alice Miller, “Exquisite Corpse,” September 2015
Corridor8, UK, Elspeth Mitchell, “Review: Exquisite Corpse, Fuse Art Space,” August 2015
The Washington Post, Mark Jenkins, “Fall Critics’ Picks: Gallery Exhibits,” September 2013
Washington Project for the Arts, Lisa Moren, “Experimental Media 2013: Cyber In Securities,” September 2013
Angry Asian Man, Phil Yu, “Julia Kim Smith Asks Google Why,” March 2013