Join us in West Hollywood for a conversation between British artist Anj Smith and curator, writer, and Deputy Director of The Brick in Los Angeles Catherine Taft in celebration of ‘Anj Smith. A Sequin-Strewn Night’ – the artist’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles in 20 years. 

The conversation will be followed by the opening reception from 7 – 8 pm.  

This event is free; however, reservations are recommended. Please register here.  
 
About ‘Anj Smith. A Sequin-Strewn Night’
For her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles in two decades, British artist Anj Smith presents a new body of painting where precarious psychological states and erotic desire intertwine to disrupt conventional depictions of motherhood and the female nude. Smith’s nuanced portrayals of a female-presenting body challenge the notion of a singular interpretation. Set in the context of toxic, inhospitable ecologies, the work explores the human potential for ingenuity, growth and the ability to thrive against the odds.

Drawing on references from film and literature, Smith’s luminous paintings combine intricate textures, saturated color banks and hallucinatory detail. Within these canvases’ imagined terrains, enigmatic figures and rarefied flora and fauna beckon viewers toward the possibility of transcendence, where resilience persists despite environmental collapse. Dissolving the boundaries between portraiture, landscape and still life, Smith’s paintings demand slow looking, revealing their details gradually and rewarding sustained attention.

About Anj Smith 
Born in 1978 in Kent, UK, Anj Smith studied at Slade School of Fine Art and at Goldsmiths College in London. Smith has exhibited at institutions around the world, including Museo Stefano Bardini, Florence, Italy; The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK; Mostyn, Llandudno, UK; Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland; Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK; Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville TN, and La Maison Rouge, Paris, France. Smith’s work is also displayed in the collections of many leading international museums including The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; MOCA The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles CA; The Roberts Institute of Art, London, and the Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland.

About Catherine Taft 
Catherine Taft is a curator, writer, and Deputy Director of The Brick in Los Angeles. Previously, she held curatorial positions at the Whitney Museum of American Art and at the Getty Research institute. Her 2024 traveling survey of ecofeminist art, ‘Life on Earth,’ received an Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Research Fellowship, among other notable grants. A related publication is forthcoming in 2026 through Inventory Press. She is a 2021 Fellow of the Center for Curatorial Leadership and is Adjunct Faculty in the Graduate Art program of Art Center College of Design.