Anj Smith

Drifting Habitations

9 November 2023 - 13 January 2024

New York, 22nd Street

About

This November critically admired British artist Anj Smith will debut an exceptional new series of paintings in her first New York solo exhibition in nearly ten years. Known for intimate, intricately rendered canvases that explore questions of identity, eroticism, anxiety and mortality, Smith’s new work takes on a larger scale to explore notions of atopia, a concept beautifully elucidated by Roland Barthes as ‘drifting habitations,’ through subverting the genre of the female nude. Atopia challenges the notion of fixed locations and invites us to consider the fluidity of our experiences and perceptions of the world. Delving into the complex relationship between self and space, the very nature of our connections to the environments we inhabit is questioned in Smith’s luminous works.

About the artist

Anj Smith’s work negotiates the space between the genres of portraiture, landscape, and still-life. In her interrogation and celebration of the medium of painting, alluring flora and fauna—from vines, flowers, and ivy to ambiguous creatures and human figures—populate ecologically devastated landscapes. Refusing fast consumption, her work explores issues of gender, ecology, anxiety, and eroticism. 

Current Exhibitions