SOLO EXHIBITIONS/PROJECTS
2023 The Compass Rose, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco, CA
2017 Models for a System, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
2017 Common Goods, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2016 Source Materiel, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2015 The Fort, Signal Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö, Sweden
2014 Set Dressing, Arts Club of Chicago, IL
2013 Rudiments of Fife & Drum, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
2013 Living History, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011 The Cries of San Francisco, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
2011 Piece Work, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, CO
2010 Pitcher Collection, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2010 Needle Work, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
2010 Fancy Work, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
2010 ARTS & SKILLS Service, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
2008 The Donkey, The Jackass, and The Mule, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
2007 Notion Nanny, University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA
2006 Hobby Horse, Artpace, San Antonio, TX
2005 Notion Nanny, Studio Voltaire, London, England
2005 Victory Hall, Bellwether, New York, NY
2005 The Muster, Public Art Fund, Governors Island, New York Harbor, NY
2005 Armory, The Armory Show: International Fair of New Art, Bellwether, New York, NY
2002 Stilleven, evenStill, Bellwether, Brooklyn, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Crossing Borders: Geometric Abstraction 1960 to Now, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2024 I'll Be Your Mirror: Reflections of the Contemporary Queer, Mighty Real/Queer Detroit, Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
2023 Queer Threads, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA
2023 Prima Materia, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
2022 Another Crossing, The Box, Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth, UK
2021 Climbing the Holy Hill, Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, MA
2021 Another Crossing, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
2020 The Word For World is Forest, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
2020 Resisting Incarceration Culture: Art as Survival, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA
2019 Making (It) Work, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA
2018 Two of Wands: Adam Milner and Allison Smith, The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, OH
2018 Be Not Still: Living in Uncertain Times (Part 1), di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, CA
2018 Cast of Characters, BSGQD, LGBT Community Center, New York, NY
2018 Play It Again: The Art of Remaking, Firstsite, Colchester, UK
2018 Reading Room: The Feminist Art of Self Help, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
2018 In Terms of Performance, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY
2018 A Page From My Intimate Journal (Part 1), Gordon Robichaux gallery, New York, NY
2017 L'Atelier Buffile: 70 Ans de Céramique à Aix, Pavillon de Vendôme, Aix-en-Provence, France
2017 Common Exchange, Cambridge Arts Council, Cambridge, MA
2017 State of the World, H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
2017 Third Space, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
2017 Artadia Booth, Untitled Art Fair, San Francisco, CA
2016 The Stand-ins, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2016 Allison Smith, Marie Lindgren, and [Krig], Gävle Konstcentrum, Gävle, Sweden
2015 The Collectors, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2015 Here We LTTR (LTTR Archive), Tensta Konsthall, Tensta, Sweden
2015 Alien She (LTTR Archive), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2015 The Way We Live Now, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2015 What Is To Come Has Already Arrived, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain
2015 What Is To Come Has Already Arrived, Koldo Mixtelena Kulturunea, San Sebastián, Spain
2014 Artadia, The Battery, San Francisco, CA
2014 One Thing Then Another, 3 Days Awake, Los Angeles, CA
2014 What Is To Come Has Already Arrived, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain
2014 Cross Section: Recent Acquisitions, Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA
2014 MoMA Studio: Breathe with Me, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2013 Labour and Wait, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA
2013 Social Fabric, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2012 We the People, Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
2012 Cultural Transference, EFA Project Space, New York, NY
2012 International Orange, FOR-SITE Foundation, Fort Point, San Francisco, CA
2011 The Air We Breathe, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
2011 Bay Area Now 6, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2011 Embodying, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
2010 Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
2010 Open Score Variations, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
2010 The Old, Weird America: Folk Themes in Contemporary Art, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA
2009 No Bees, No Blueberries, Harris Lieberman gallery, New York, NY
2009 The Old, Weird America, deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, Lincoln, MA
2008 The Old, Weird America: Folk Themes in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX
2008 Democracy in America, Creative Time, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY
2008 Gestures of Resistance, Gray Matters Gallery, College Art Association, Dallas, TX
2008 On Procession, Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN
2008 Inner and Outer Space, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA
2008 Ethnographies of the Future, BRIC Arts | Media House, Brooklyn, NY
2007 Funny Shadows, Clifford Chance US, New York, NY
2007 Poe & Twain Projects, Glyndor Gallery, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
2007 ÉTATS (faites-le vous-même)/ GROW YOUR OWN, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2007 Interstate: The American Road Trip, High Desert Test Sites, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY
2006 Art in America, Arario Gallery, Cheonan, South Korea
2006 Ahistoric Occasion, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA
2006 The “F” Word, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
2006 Was Wäre Wenn #4: Hands-On History, JET, Berlin, Germany
2005 You are Here, Ballroom Marfa, TX
2005 Greater New York, P.S.1/Museum of Modern Art, Long Island City, NY
2005 Log Cabin, Artists Space, New York, NY
2005 We Could Have Invited Everyone, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, NY
2004 Explosion LTTR, Art in General, New York, NY
2003 Formed to Function? John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
2002 End of the Rainbow, Bellwether gallery, New York, NY
2001 Sharon Core, Simone Dilaura, and Allison Smith, Bellwether, Brooklyn, NY
1997 Fearful Symmetry, Clementine, New York
AWARDS & HONORS
2021 Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Award, San Francisco, CA
2015 National Endowment for the Arts Project Grant, Washington, DC
2010 United States Artists Fellowship, New York, NY
2010 Creative Work Fund Visual Arts Grant, San Francisco, CA
2009 Alternative Exposure Grant, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
2009 Artadia Award, San Francisco, CA
2008 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, New York, NY
2007 New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship, New York, NY
2005 Arts Council England Grant, London, UK
2005 Jerwood Charitable Foundation Grant, London, UK
2001 Lower East Side Printshop Special Editions Fellowship, New York, NY
1999 Susan H. Whedon Award, Yale University School of the Arts, New Haven, CT
1999 Leopold Schepp Foundation Fellowship, New York, NY
1995 David S. Woods Award, New School for Social Research, New York, NY
NOTABLE RESIDENCIES
2023 Dogpatch Collective Inaugural Artist-in-Residence, San Francisco, CA
2015 IASPIS, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Stockholm, Sweden
2014 Sert Practitioner in the Arts, Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2014 Museum of Modern Art, Artists Experiment Initiative, New York, NY
2013 Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
2012 Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2012 Artadia Artist-in-Residence, International Studio and Curatorial Program, Brooklyn, NY
2010 Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2010 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
2009 Henry L. & Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
2007 Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA
2006 Artpace International Artist Residency, San Antonio, TX
2005 Grizedale Arts, Cumbria, UK
MONOGRAPHS
2023 The Compass Rose, Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, San Francisco, CA
2018 Models for a System, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
2016 The Cries of San Francisco, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
2014 Set Dressing, Arts Club of Chicago, IL
2014 Rudiments of Fife & Drum, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
2010 Needle Work, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
2007 The Muster: What Are You Fighting For? Public Art Fund, New York, NY
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024 Vargas, Chris et al. eds. Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects, Hirmer Publishers, University of Chicago Press, 2024.
2024 Booker, Christopher and Maea Lenei Buhre. "Detroit Showcases Queer Art in Pioneering Exhibition." PBS Newshour, June 27, 2024.
2023 Finkel, Jori. "At the de Young, a Rousing Showcase for Bay Area Artists." The New York Times, October 18, 2023.
2023 Wilson, Emily. "Wall-towall de Young Open offers up Bay's creative bounty--and supports artists, too." 48 Hills, August 30, 2023.
2023 Bravo, Tony. "'Queer threads' explores LGBTQ experience through fiber and textile art." SF Chronicle, August 4, 2023.
2023 Zhuang, Yizhou. "Exhibition Review: 'The Copmass Rose' by Sunny A. Smith." Rewind Review Respond Vol. 6, California College of the Arts, Spring 2023.
2023 Harra, Evelynn. "Exhibition Review: 'The Copmass Rose' by Sunny A. Smith." Rewind Review Respond Vol. 6, California College of the Arts, Spring 2023.
2023 Hewitt, Vita. "Time Traveling Through The Compass Rose at Fort Mason." brokeassstewart.com, February 20, 2023.
2023 Hotchkiss, Sarah. “Art to See at the Start of 2023.” KQED Arts, January 4, 2023.
2023 Ngayi, Thembela. "Black Queer Fiber & Textiles Artists Explore Futurity, Spirituality, Sexuality, And Materiality In Queer Threads." Afropunk, June 15, 2023.
2021 Abbott, Kate. "Hancock Shakers used to hike this trail to sing and dance in worship on Holy Mount. A new sound installation grants you a similar journey." Berkshire Eagle, September 23, 2021.
2021 Falls, Susan and Jessica R. Smith. Overshot: The Political Aesthetics of Woven Textiles from the Antebellum South and Beyond. University of Georgia Press, 2021.
2020 Ball, Fiona, Naz Cuguoglu, Chloe Kwiatkowski, and Orly Vermes. The Word for World is Forest, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
2018 Cast of Characters. New York: Bureau of General Services, Queer Division, LGBT Community Center, 2018.
2018 State of the World. Kansas City: H&R Block Artspace, 2018.
2018 "California College of the Arts Appoints New Deans of Fine Arts, Humanities & Sciences." Artforum, April 18, 2018.
2018 Annie Armstrong, "California College of the Arts Appoints Two New Deans." ArtNews, April 18, 2018.
2018 Sarah Hotchkiss, "di Rosa Hands Programming Over to Artists in ‘Uncertain Times’." KQED Arts, February 1, 2018.
2017 Deborah Lee, "Common Exchange Adds Uncommon Experiences to Public Space." Art Outdoors blog, October 17, 2017.
2017 Julia Bryan-Wilson, "Harmony Hammond Goes Down." Fray: Art + Textile Politics. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2017.
2017 "The Contemporary Jewish Museum exhibits works by Allison Smith." artdaily.com, July 21, 2017.
2017 Josh Fischer, "Interview with Allison Smith." bigredandshiny.org, June 27, 2017.
2017 Risa Puleo, "A Fanfare of Flags: Unwoven, Repurposed, Quilted, and Performed." hyperallergic.com, March 17, 2017.
2017 Socrates Sculpture Park: Thirty Years, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York, 2017.
2017 Jennifer Levin, “Trenchant Insight: Source Materiel.” Santa Fe New Mexican, April 3, 2017.
2016 Jackie Jadrnak, “‘Trench art’ was an expression of love and life amid the violence of The Great War.” Albuquerque Journal, February 19, 2016.
2016 James Voorhies, "The Way We Live Now: Modernist Ideologies at Work." What Ever Happened to New Institutionalism?, Cambridge and Berlin: CCVA, Harvard and Sternberg Press, 2016.
2016 Elizabeth Thomas, “Acting Out.” Allison Smith: The Cries of San Francisco. San Francisco: Southern Exposure, 2016.
2016 Gwen Allen, “Craft, Commerce, & Communication in Allison Smith’s The Cries of SF.” Allison Smith: The Cries of San Francisco. San Francisco: Southern Exposure, 2016.
2015 Zechnowitz, Jessie Lauren. "Re-enacting Craft in Times of War: Allison Smith and Stephanie Syjuco's Activist Art." MA in Art: Art History Thesis, SF State University, 2015.
2015 Brian Boucher, "Dread Scott Wants You to Rise Up Against Slavery." artnet.com, September 29, 2015.
2015 Sarah Urist Green, “The Muster—Allison Smith.” The Art Assignment, PBS.org, May 7, 2015.
2015 Kerri-Lynn Reeves, “Heart of the Matter.” Craft Journal 7, no. 2, Winter 2015.
2015 Thomas Milroth, “The Ideological Surface-Crack.” Sydsvenskan. Malmo, Sweden, 2015.
2015 Juan Antonio Álvarez Reyes, “Reactivate Utopias." What Is To Come Has Already Arrived. Donostia/ San Sebastián: Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundia, 2015.
2015 Amada Cruz, Hare & Hound Press + Artpace: the Art of Collaboration. San Antonio: Linda Pace Foundation, 2015.
2015 Ann Landi, “Telling Stories in Three Dimensions: Installation Art Today.” ARTnews.com, January 20, 2015.
2015 Trent Morse, “Allison Smith: Material Girl.” ARTnews.com, January 17, 2015.
2014 Mark Pohlad, “Allison Smith: Arts Club of Chicago.” Newcity Art, December 12, 2014.
2014 Micol Hebron, “Social Fabric.” Journal of Modern Craft 6, no.3, 2014.
2014 Richard Klein, Allison Smith: Rudiments of Fife & Drum. Ridgefield, CT: Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, 2014.
2014 Elissa Auther, “A Brief History of Quilts in Contemporary Art.” Unconventional and Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000. New York: Abrams, 2014.
2014 Nicole Archer, “Hand in Glove: Allison Smith’s ‘Set Dressing’ and the Erotics of Historic Inconsistency.” Allison Smith: Set Dressing. Chicago: Arts Club of Chicago, 2014.
2014 Nicole Archer, “Security Blankets: Uniforms, Hoods, and the Textures of Terror.” Women and Performance, December 6, 2014.
2014 Keri-Lynn Reeves and Jenny Western, “The Heart of the Matter.” Cahiers métiers d'art / Craft Journal [Montreal, Canada] 7, no. 2, 2014.
2013 Rebecca Uchill, “Processing Transactions, Forming Intent: Coproduction and Exchange in the Work of Allison Smith.” FutureAnterior 10, no. 1, Summer 2013.
2013 Scarlet Cheng, “‘Labour and Wait’ Displays the Melding of Art and Craft.” Los Angeles Times, August 31, 2013.
2013 Brooke Hodge, “Where Arts and Crafts are One.” New York Times Magazine, New York, NY, July 1, 2013.
2013 Jacquelyn Gleisner, “New Kids on the Block: All Who Muster with Allison Smith.” art:21, June 10, 2013.
2013 Martha Schwendener, “Fifes and Drums as Performance Art.” New York Times, New York, NY, June 7, 2013.
2013 Barbara Pollack, “The Civil War in Art, Then and Now.” ARTnews, May 15, 2013.
2013 Julia Bryan-Wilson, "Knit Dissent." Contemporary Art: 1989 to the Present. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, p. 245-253.
2012 Mel Y. Chen, “Masked States and the ‘Screen’ Between Security and Disability.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 40, no. 1 & 2 Spring/Summer 2012.
2011 Matt Sussman, “Pre-Occupied.” San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco, CA, December 20, 2011.
2011 Frances De Vuono, “Allison Smith: MCA Denver.” Art in America, August 27, 2011.
2011 Nirmala Nataraj, “‘The Cries of San Francisco’: Marketplace as Art.” San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, CA, June 2, 2011.
2011 Allie Haeusslein, "Allison Smith at MCA Denver." DailyServing.com, May 12, 2011.
2011 Gerard Brown, “Reenactment and Relic: The Civil War in Contemporary Art.” Remixing the Civil War: Meditations on the Civil War Sesquicentennial. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.
2011 Pablo Helguera, Education for Socially Engaged Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2011.
2011 Rebecca Schneider, Performing Remains: Art and War in Times of Theatrical Reenactment. London: Routledge, 2011.
2011 Allie Haeusslein, "Allison Smith at MCA Denver." DailyServing.com, May 2, 2011.
2011 Janice Jefferies, "Loving Attention: An Outburst of Craft in Contemporary Art." Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011.
2010 Jennifer Geigel Mikulay, “Acts of Association: Allison Smith’s Craft as Civic Practice.” Journal of Modern Craft 2, no. 2 (2010).
2008 Geir Heraldseth, “Interview with Allison Smith.” Acne Paper 7, Paris, France, Autumn 2008.
2008 Julia Bryan-Wilson, “The Politics of Craft.” Modern Painters, February 2008.
2008 Tavia Nyong’o, “Period Rush: Affective Transfers in Recent Queer Art and Performance.” Theater History Studies 28, 2008.
2007 Timothy Marvel Hull, “Entrenched with Allison Smith.” Swingset 8 (2007).
2007 Aimee Walleston, “Allison Smith’s Semantic Battleground.” Tokion 2, no. 1 (2007).
2007 L.D. Beghtol, “Fight Club: Allison Smith’s Project Inspires Protest.” Village Voice, New York, NY, March 30, 2007.
2006 Adrian Plant, “Allison Smith: Notion Nanny.” a-n, May 2006.
2005 James Trainor, “The Muster.” frieze, September 2005.
2005 Nick Stillman, “Allison Smith.” Flash Art, July/September, 2005.
2005 Alison Benjamin, “Allison Smith: Q &A.” The Guardian, London, England, August 24, 2005.
2005 Barbara Pollack, “Allison Smith, Victory Hall.” Time Out New York, New York, NY, June 16-22, 2005.
2005 Randy Kennedy, “Desert Island Fantasy.” New York Times, New York, NY, May 16, 2005.
2005 Christopher Pacetta, “Ten-hut! New York Artists Invoke Civil War Imagery to Draw Attention to Their Favorite Causes.” New York Daily News, New York, NY, May 14, 2005.
2005 Martha Schwendener, “Muster & Commander.” Time Out New York, New York, NY, May 12-18, 2005.
2005 Ariella Budick, “Enlisting in the Army of Art.” New York Newsday, New York, NY, May 12, 2005.
2005 Carol Vogel, “War & Pieces by Artists.” New York Times, New York, NY, May 6, 2005.
2002 Roberta Smith, “Art in Review: Allison Smith, Ellen Altfest.” New York Times, New York, NY, October 4, 2002.
INVITED ARTIST TALKS & PANELS
2024 Moderator, Unexpected Connections: Quilting and the Social Fabric, Saint Joseph’s Arts Foundation, San Francisco, CA
2024. Moderator, VISITING FIRE : tending lands, conversations, and stories, Villa Albertine, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2024 Panelist, MATRIX series Curator's Forum, U.C. Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
2023 Moderator, Full Circle: de Young Open artists in conversation, de Young Museum, , San Francisco, CA
2023 Artist Talk (in conversation with Maud Newton), The Compass Rose, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco, CA
2022 Artist Talk, Discussant, Quilt Study Days: Conversations at the Seams of Culture, Art, and History, U.C. Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
2023 The Compass Rose, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco, CA
2021 Another Crossing: Excavating Histories: Technique, Research, and Collaboration, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
2019 In A Body as Queer as Nature, Lambda Literary Festival, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Sculpture for Society Panel, Cleveland Sculptors Network, Cleveland, OH
2018 In conversation with Christina Zetterlund, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
2018 In conversation with Jessica Ingram, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, CA
2017 In conversation with Anastasia James, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
2017 Common Goods (with Judith Leemann), Cambridge Historical Society, Cambridge Common Park, Cambridge, MA
2015 In conversation with Jane Kimball: Source Materiel, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2014 Co-organizer, Presenter, The Curative Object Symposium, Contemporary Art Forum series, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2015 Source Materiel, Signal Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö, Sweden
2015 Here we LTTR, Tensta Konsthall, Tensta, Sweden
2015 Decad, Berlin, Germany
2015 Art from Research Panel, ARTspace, College Art Association Annual Conference, New York, NY
2014 Artists on Art Series, Photography and the American Civil War exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2014 Set Dressing, Arts Club of Chicago, IL
2014 Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2013 Craft and Folk Art Museum/California State University, Department of Art, Los Angeles, CA
2013 Trench Art, Subjective Histories of Sculpture Series, SculptureCenter, Vera List Center for Art & Politics, New York, NY
2012 In conversation with Jennifer DeVere Brody, Precarious Performance, History of Art Department/Theater Dance and Performance Studies, UC Berkeley, CA
2012 ReMODEL: Sculpture Education Now Symposium, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2012 Salon, International Studio and Curatorial Program, Brooklyn, NY
2012 Material Culture as Cultural Material Panel, New Approaches to Presenting American Art Symposium, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2011 Expanding Craft/Expanding Objects Panel, Situated: Time-based Art and Neighborhood Ecologies Symposium, University of California, Berkeley, CA
2011 Craft Forward Symposium, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2010 Huckleberry Finn Exhibition, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
2010 American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life Exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
2010 YES Symposium: The Persistence of Optimism, Tang Teaching Museum and ArtGallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
2010 Unruly Work: Queer Art and Activism Panel, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2008 Post-Studio Lessons: Teaching Art in the 21st Century Think Tank, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2008 Crafting Protest Panel, Vera List Center for Art & Politics, New York, NY
2007 In conversation with Nato Thompson, Initial Public Offerings (I.P.O.): New Objects, New Audiences Series, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2007 Exploring the Rise of Reenactment as a Form of Public Memory Panel, Ahistoric Occasion: The Uses of History in Contemporary Art Symposium, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and The Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
2006 Artists Speak: Conversations on Contemporary Art with Glenn D. Lowry, Museum of Modern Art, New York
2005 Who Cares: Beauty & Its Discontents Think Tank, Creative Time, New York, NY
2005 Spencer Museum of Art and University of Kansas, Art Department, Lawrence, KS
2005 In conversation with Jeffrey Uslip, Initial Public Offerings (I.P.O.) Series, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2005 Log Cabin Symposium, Vera List Center for Art and Politics and Artists Space, New York, NY
VISITING ARTIST LECTURES & CRITIQUES
2023 San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
2019 Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
2018 School of Art, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
2017 Nomad 9 Interdisciplinary MFA Program, Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, CT
2016 Kansas City Art Institute, Fiber Department, Kansas City, MO
2016 San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2016 Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
2015 Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ
2014 Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
2013 The Critique Program, San Francisco, CA
2013 University of California, Davis, MFA Program, CA
2013 University of California, Berkeley, Department of Art Practice, CA
2012 Sonoma State University, Department of Art and Art History, Rohnert Park, CA
2012 Temple Contemporary/ Tyler School of Art, Foundations Program, Philadelphia, PA
2012 Mildred’s Lane, Beach Lake, PA
2011 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Fiber & Material Studies Department, Chicago, IL
2011 Mills College, MFA Program, Oakland, CA
2010 Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
2009 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2009 Mildred’s Lane, Beach Lake, PA
2009 Massachusetts College of Art, MFA Program, Boston, MA
2009 Rhode Island School of Design, Glass Department, Providence, RI
2009 University of California, Berkeley, MFA Program, CA
2009 Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University, MFA Program, St. Louis, MO
2008 Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, MFA Art Department, Minneapolis, MN
2008 Mildred’s Lane, Beach Lake, PA
2008 School of Visual Arts, Fine Arts Department, New York, NY
2008 California College of the Arts, MFA Social Practice Program, San Francisco, CA
2008 Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN
2007 School of Visual Arts, MFA Program, New York, NY
2007 Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts, MFA Program, New Brunswick, NJ
2007 Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA
2007 Cranbrook Academy of Art, Sculpture Department, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2007 University of Southern California Roski School of Fine Arts, MFA Program, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Keynote Lecture, University of the Arts, College of Art & Design, MFA Program, Philadelphia, PA
2006 Florida International University, Miami, FL
2006 Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL
2006 Maryland Institute College of Art, Fiber Department/Sculptural Studies, Baltimore, MD
2006 Performance Studies Department, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York, NY
2006 Maine College of Art, MFA Program, Portland, ME
2006 Yale School of Art, Sculpture Department, New Haven, CT
2006 Parsons School of Design, Fine Arts Department, New York, NY
2006 Rhode Island School of Design, Textiles Department, Providence, RI
2005 Constance Howard Resource and Research Centre, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK
2005 Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, England, UK
2005 New York University Steinhardt School, Studio Art Department, New York, NY
2005 Graduate Thesis Committee, Columbia University School of the Arts, Visual Arts Division, New York, NY
2005 Rhode Island School of Design, Glass Department, Providence, RI
2005 Undergraduate and Graduate Critiques, Rhode Island School of Design, Textiles Department, Providence, RI
2005 Yale University School of Art, Sculpture Department, New Haven, CT
2004 Barnard College, Fine Arts Department, New York, NY
2004 Rhode Island School of Design, Printmaking Department, Providence, RI
2002 New York University Steinhardt School, Studio Art Department, New York, NY
2002 Rhode Island School of Design, Glass Department, Providence, RI
2001 Rhode Island School of Design, Glass Department, Providence, RI
2000 The Corcoran College of Art & Design, Sculpture Department, Washington, DC
2000 Andrew Mellon Visiting Artist Lecture, Pratt Institute, Visual Arts Program, Brooklyn, NY
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Arario Gallery, Cheonan, South Korea
Art, Design and Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, CA
Birmingham Art Museum, AL
Brooklyn Museum, NY
Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, IL
Clifford Chance, New York, NY
de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco, CA
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY
Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN
Landfill Archive of Socially Engaged Artworks, thelandfill.org
Linda Pace Foundation, San Antonio, TX
Living as Form Archive of Socially Engaged Practices, Creative Time, New York, NY
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
New York Public Library, NY
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY
Queens Museum, NY
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI
Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Western Michigan University
Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS
University Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
Vera List Center, New School, New York, NY
West Collection, Oaks, PA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
EDUCATION
1999–00 Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program, New York, NY
1999 MFA Sculpture, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT
1995 BFA Fine Arts: Sculpture, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
1995 BA Psychology, Eugene Lang College, New School for Social Research, New York, NY
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2022– Professor, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2018– Dean of Fine Arts, California College of the Arts, Oakland and San Francisco, CA
2017–18 Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon University School of the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA
2013–17 Associate Professor, California College of the Arts, Oakland and San Francisco, CA
2008–13 Assistant Professor, California College of the Arts, Oakland and San Francisco, CA
2023 The Compass Rose, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco, CA
2017 Models for a System, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
2017 Common Goods, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2016 Source Materiel, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2015 The Fort, Signal Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö, Sweden
2014 Set Dressing, Arts Club of Chicago, IL
2013 Rudiments of Fife & Drum, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
2013 Living History, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011 The Cries of San Francisco, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
2011 Piece Work, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, CO
2010 Pitcher Collection, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2010 Needle Work, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
2010 Fancy Work, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
2010 ARTS & SKILLS Service, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
2008 The Donkey, The Jackass, and The Mule, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
2007 Notion Nanny, University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA
2006 Hobby Horse, Artpace, San Antonio, TX
2005 Notion Nanny, Studio Voltaire, London, England
2005 Victory Hall, Bellwether, New York, NY
2005 The Muster, Public Art Fund, Governors Island, New York Harbor, NY
2005 Armory, The Armory Show: International Fair of New Art, Bellwether, New York, NY
2002 Stilleven, evenStill, Bellwether, Brooklyn, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Crossing Borders: Geometric Abstraction 1960 to Now, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2024 I'll Be Your Mirror: Reflections of the Contemporary Queer, Mighty Real/Queer Detroit, Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
2023 Queer Threads, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA
2023 Prima Materia, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
2022 Another Crossing, The Box, Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth, UK
2021 Climbing the Holy Hill, Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, MA
2021 Another Crossing, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
2020 The Word For World is Forest, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
2020 Resisting Incarceration Culture: Art as Survival, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA
2019 Making (It) Work, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA
2018 Two of Wands: Adam Milner and Allison Smith, The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, OH
2018 Be Not Still: Living in Uncertain Times (Part 1), di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, CA
2018 Cast of Characters, BSGQD, LGBT Community Center, New York, NY
2018 Play It Again: The Art of Remaking, Firstsite, Colchester, UK
2018 Reading Room: The Feminist Art of Self Help, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
2018 In Terms of Performance, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY
2018 A Page From My Intimate Journal (Part 1), Gordon Robichaux gallery, New York, NY
2017 L'Atelier Buffile: 70 Ans de Céramique à Aix, Pavillon de Vendôme, Aix-en-Provence, France
2017 Common Exchange, Cambridge Arts Council, Cambridge, MA
2017 State of the World, H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
2017 Third Space, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
2017 Artadia Booth, Untitled Art Fair, San Francisco, CA
2016 The Stand-ins, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2016 Allison Smith, Marie Lindgren, and [Krig], Gävle Konstcentrum, Gävle, Sweden
2015 The Collectors, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2015 Here We LTTR (LTTR Archive), Tensta Konsthall, Tensta, Sweden
2015 Alien She (LTTR Archive), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2015 The Way We Live Now, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2015 What Is To Come Has Already Arrived, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain
2015 What Is To Come Has Already Arrived, Koldo Mixtelena Kulturunea, San Sebastián, Spain
2014 Artadia, The Battery, San Francisco, CA
2014 One Thing Then Another, 3 Days Awake, Los Angeles, CA
2014 What Is To Come Has Already Arrived, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain
2014 Cross Section: Recent Acquisitions, Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA
2014 MoMA Studio: Breathe with Me, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2013 Labour and Wait, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA
2013 Social Fabric, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2012 We the People, Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
2012 Cultural Transference, EFA Project Space, New York, NY
2012 International Orange, FOR-SITE Foundation, Fort Point, San Francisco, CA
2011 The Air We Breathe, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
2011 Bay Area Now 6, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2011 Embodying, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
2010 Huckleberry Finn, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
2010 Open Score Variations, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
2010 The Old, Weird America: Folk Themes in Contemporary Art, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA
2009 No Bees, No Blueberries, Harris Lieberman gallery, New York, NY
2009 The Old, Weird America, deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, Lincoln, MA
2008 The Old, Weird America: Folk Themes in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX
2008 Democracy in America, Creative Time, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY
2008 Gestures of Resistance, Gray Matters Gallery, College Art Association, Dallas, TX
2008 On Procession, Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN
2008 Inner and Outer Space, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA
2008 Ethnographies of the Future, BRIC Arts | Media House, Brooklyn, NY
2007 Funny Shadows, Clifford Chance US, New York, NY
2007 Poe & Twain Projects, Glyndor Gallery, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
2007 ÉTATS (faites-le vous-même)/ GROW YOUR OWN, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2007 Interstate: The American Road Trip, High Desert Test Sites, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY
2006 Art in America, Arario Gallery, Cheonan, South Korea
2006 Ahistoric Occasion, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA
2006 The “F” Word, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
2006 Was Wäre Wenn #4: Hands-On History, JET, Berlin, Germany
2005 You are Here, Ballroom Marfa, TX
2005 Greater New York, P.S.1/Museum of Modern Art, Long Island City, NY
2005 Log Cabin, Artists Space, New York, NY
2005 We Could Have Invited Everyone, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, NY
2004 Explosion LTTR, Art in General, New York, NY
2003 Formed to Function? John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
2002 End of the Rainbow, Bellwether gallery, New York, NY
2001 Sharon Core, Simone Dilaura, and Allison Smith, Bellwether, Brooklyn, NY
1997 Fearful Symmetry, Clementine, New York
AWARDS & HONORS
2021 Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Award, San Francisco, CA
2015 National Endowment for the Arts Project Grant, Washington, DC
2010 United States Artists Fellowship, New York, NY
2010 Creative Work Fund Visual Arts Grant, San Francisco, CA
2009 Alternative Exposure Grant, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
2009 Artadia Award, San Francisco, CA
2008 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, New York, NY
2007 New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship, New York, NY
2005 Arts Council England Grant, London, UK
2005 Jerwood Charitable Foundation Grant, London, UK
2001 Lower East Side Printshop Special Editions Fellowship, New York, NY
1999 Susan H. Whedon Award, Yale University School of the Arts, New Haven, CT
1999 Leopold Schepp Foundation Fellowship, New York, NY
1995 David S. Woods Award, New School for Social Research, New York, NY
NOTABLE RESIDENCIES
2023 Dogpatch Collective Inaugural Artist-in-Residence, San Francisco, CA
2015 IASPIS, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Stockholm, Sweden
2014 Sert Practitioner in the Arts, Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2014 Museum of Modern Art, Artists Experiment Initiative, New York, NY
2013 Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
2012 Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2012 Artadia Artist-in-Residence, International Studio and Curatorial Program, Brooklyn, NY
2010 Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2010 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
2009 Henry L. & Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
2007 Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA
2006 Artpace International Artist Residency, San Antonio, TX
2005 Grizedale Arts, Cumbria, UK
MONOGRAPHS
2023 The Compass Rose, Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, San Francisco, CA
2018 Models for a System, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
2016 The Cries of San Francisco, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
2014 Set Dressing, Arts Club of Chicago, IL
2014 Rudiments of Fife & Drum, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
2010 Needle Work, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
2007 The Muster: What Are You Fighting For? Public Art Fund, New York, NY
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024 Vargas, Chris et al. eds. Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects, Hirmer Publishers, University of Chicago Press, 2024.
2024 Booker, Christopher and Maea Lenei Buhre. "Detroit Showcases Queer Art in Pioneering Exhibition." PBS Newshour, June 27, 2024.
2023 Finkel, Jori. "At the de Young, a Rousing Showcase for Bay Area Artists." The New York Times, October 18, 2023.
2023 Wilson, Emily. "Wall-towall de Young Open offers up Bay's creative bounty--and supports artists, too." 48 Hills, August 30, 2023.
2023 Bravo, Tony. "'Queer threads' explores LGBTQ experience through fiber and textile art." SF Chronicle, August 4, 2023.
2023 Zhuang, Yizhou. "Exhibition Review: 'The Copmass Rose' by Sunny A. Smith." Rewind Review Respond Vol. 6, California College of the Arts, Spring 2023.
2023 Harra, Evelynn. "Exhibition Review: 'The Copmass Rose' by Sunny A. Smith." Rewind Review Respond Vol. 6, California College of the Arts, Spring 2023.
2023 Hewitt, Vita. "Time Traveling Through The Compass Rose at Fort Mason." brokeassstewart.com, February 20, 2023.
2023 Hotchkiss, Sarah. “Art to See at the Start of 2023.” KQED Arts, January 4, 2023.
2023 Ngayi, Thembela. "Black Queer Fiber & Textiles Artists Explore Futurity, Spirituality, Sexuality, And Materiality In Queer Threads." Afropunk, June 15, 2023.
2021 Abbott, Kate. "Hancock Shakers used to hike this trail to sing and dance in worship on Holy Mount. A new sound installation grants you a similar journey." Berkshire Eagle, September 23, 2021.
2021 Falls, Susan and Jessica R. Smith. Overshot: The Political Aesthetics of Woven Textiles from the Antebellum South and Beyond. University of Georgia Press, 2021.
2020 Ball, Fiona, Naz Cuguoglu, Chloe Kwiatkowski, and Orly Vermes. The Word for World is Forest, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
2018 Cast of Characters. New York: Bureau of General Services, Queer Division, LGBT Community Center, 2018.
2018 State of the World. Kansas City: H&R Block Artspace, 2018.
2018 "California College of the Arts Appoints New Deans of Fine Arts, Humanities & Sciences." Artforum, April 18, 2018.
2018 Annie Armstrong, "California College of the Arts Appoints Two New Deans." ArtNews, April 18, 2018.
2018 Sarah Hotchkiss, "di Rosa Hands Programming Over to Artists in ‘Uncertain Times’." KQED Arts, February 1, 2018.
2017 Deborah Lee, "Common Exchange Adds Uncommon Experiences to Public Space." Art Outdoors blog, October 17, 2017.
2017 Julia Bryan-Wilson, "Harmony Hammond Goes Down." Fray: Art + Textile Politics. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2017.
2017 "The Contemporary Jewish Museum exhibits works by Allison Smith." artdaily.com, July 21, 2017.
2017 Josh Fischer, "Interview with Allison Smith." bigredandshiny.org, June 27, 2017.
2017 Risa Puleo, "A Fanfare of Flags: Unwoven, Repurposed, Quilted, and Performed." hyperallergic.com, March 17, 2017.
2017 Socrates Sculpture Park: Thirty Years, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York, 2017.
2017 Jennifer Levin, “Trenchant Insight: Source Materiel.” Santa Fe New Mexican, April 3, 2017.
2016 Jackie Jadrnak, “‘Trench art’ was an expression of love and life amid the violence of The Great War.” Albuquerque Journal, February 19, 2016.
2016 James Voorhies, "The Way We Live Now: Modernist Ideologies at Work." What Ever Happened to New Institutionalism?, Cambridge and Berlin: CCVA, Harvard and Sternberg Press, 2016.
2016 Elizabeth Thomas, “Acting Out.” Allison Smith: The Cries of San Francisco. San Francisco: Southern Exposure, 2016.
2016 Gwen Allen, “Craft, Commerce, & Communication in Allison Smith’s The Cries of SF.” Allison Smith: The Cries of San Francisco. San Francisco: Southern Exposure, 2016.
2015 Zechnowitz, Jessie Lauren. "Re-enacting Craft in Times of War: Allison Smith and Stephanie Syjuco's Activist Art." MA in Art: Art History Thesis, SF State University, 2015.
2015 Brian Boucher, "Dread Scott Wants You to Rise Up Against Slavery." artnet.com, September 29, 2015.
2015 Sarah Urist Green, “The Muster—Allison Smith.” The Art Assignment, PBS.org, May 7, 2015.
2015 Kerri-Lynn Reeves, “Heart of the Matter.” Craft Journal 7, no. 2, Winter 2015.
2015 Thomas Milroth, “The Ideological Surface-Crack.” Sydsvenskan. Malmo, Sweden, 2015.
2015 Juan Antonio Álvarez Reyes, “Reactivate Utopias." What Is To Come Has Already Arrived. Donostia/ San Sebastián: Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundia, 2015.
2015 Amada Cruz, Hare & Hound Press + Artpace: the Art of Collaboration. San Antonio: Linda Pace Foundation, 2015.
2015 Ann Landi, “Telling Stories in Three Dimensions: Installation Art Today.” ARTnews.com, January 20, 2015.
2015 Trent Morse, “Allison Smith: Material Girl.” ARTnews.com, January 17, 2015.
2014 Mark Pohlad, “Allison Smith: Arts Club of Chicago.” Newcity Art, December 12, 2014.
2014 Micol Hebron, “Social Fabric.” Journal of Modern Craft 6, no.3, 2014.
2014 Richard Klein, Allison Smith: Rudiments of Fife & Drum. Ridgefield, CT: Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, 2014.
2014 Elissa Auther, “A Brief History of Quilts in Contemporary Art.” Unconventional and Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000. New York: Abrams, 2014.
2014 Nicole Archer, “Hand in Glove: Allison Smith’s ‘Set Dressing’ and the Erotics of Historic Inconsistency.” Allison Smith: Set Dressing. Chicago: Arts Club of Chicago, 2014.
2014 Nicole Archer, “Security Blankets: Uniforms, Hoods, and the Textures of Terror.” Women and Performance, December 6, 2014.
2014 Keri-Lynn Reeves and Jenny Western, “The Heart of the Matter.” Cahiers métiers d'art / Craft Journal [Montreal, Canada] 7, no. 2, 2014.
2013 Rebecca Uchill, “Processing Transactions, Forming Intent: Coproduction and Exchange in the Work of Allison Smith.” FutureAnterior 10, no. 1, Summer 2013.
2013 Scarlet Cheng, “‘Labour and Wait’ Displays the Melding of Art and Craft.” Los Angeles Times, August 31, 2013.
2013 Brooke Hodge, “Where Arts and Crafts are One.” New York Times Magazine, New York, NY, July 1, 2013.
2013 Jacquelyn Gleisner, “New Kids on the Block: All Who Muster with Allison Smith.” art:21, June 10, 2013.
2013 Martha Schwendener, “Fifes and Drums as Performance Art.” New York Times, New York, NY, June 7, 2013.
2013 Barbara Pollack, “The Civil War in Art, Then and Now.” ARTnews, May 15, 2013.
2013 Julia Bryan-Wilson, "Knit Dissent." Contemporary Art: 1989 to the Present. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, p. 245-253.
2012 Mel Y. Chen, “Masked States and the ‘Screen’ Between Security and Disability.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 40, no. 1 & 2 Spring/Summer 2012.
2011 Matt Sussman, “Pre-Occupied.” San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco, CA, December 20, 2011.
2011 Frances De Vuono, “Allison Smith: MCA Denver.” Art in America, August 27, 2011.
2011 Nirmala Nataraj, “‘The Cries of San Francisco’: Marketplace as Art.” San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, CA, June 2, 2011.
2011 Allie Haeusslein, "Allison Smith at MCA Denver." DailyServing.com, May 12, 2011.
2011 Gerard Brown, “Reenactment and Relic: The Civil War in Contemporary Art.” Remixing the Civil War: Meditations on the Civil War Sesquicentennial. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.
2011 Pablo Helguera, Education for Socially Engaged Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2011.
2011 Rebecca Schneider, Performing Remains: Art and War in Times of Theatrical Reenactment. London: Routledge, 2011.
2011 Allie Haeusslein, "Allison Smith at MCA Denver." DailyServing.com, May 2, 2011.
2011 Janice Jefferies, "Loving Attention: An Outburst of Craft in Contemporary Art." Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011.
2010 Jennifer Geigel Mikulay, “Acts of Association: Allison Smith’s Craft as Civic Practice.” Journal of Modern Craft 2, no. 2 (2010).
2008 Geir Heraldseth, “Interview with Allison Smith.” Acne Paper 7, Paris, France, Autumn 2008.
2008 Julia Bryan-Wilson, “The Politics of Craft.” Modern Painters, February 2008.
2008 Tavia Nyong’o, “Period Rush: Affective Transfers in Recent Queer Art and Performance.” Theater History Studies 28, 2008.
2007 Timothy Marvel Hull, “Entrenched with Allison Smith.” Swingset 8 (2007).
2007 Aimee Walleston, “Allison Smith’s Semantic Battleground.” Tokion 2, no. 1 (2007).
2007 L.D. Beghtol, “Fight Club: Allison Smith’s Project Inspires Protest.” Village Voice, New York, NY, March 30, 2007.
2006 Adrian Plant, “Allison Smith: Notion Nanny.” a-n, May 2006.
2005 James Trainor, “The Muster.” frieze, September 2005.
2005 Nick Stillman, “Allison Smith.” Flash Art, July/September, 2005.
2005 Alison Benjamin, “Allison Smith: Q &A.” The Guardian, London, England, August 24, 2005.
2005 Barbara Pollack, “Allison Smith, Victory Hall.” Time Out New York, New York, NY, June 16-22, 2005.
2005 Randy Kennedy, “Desert Island Fantasy.” New York Times, New York, NY, May 16, 2005.
2005 Christopher Pacetta, “Ten-hut! New York Artists Invoke Civil War Imagery to Draw Attention to Their Favorite Causes.” New York Daily News, New York, NY, May 14, 2005.
2005 Martha Schwendener, “Muster & Commander.” Time Out New York, New York, NY, May 12-18, 2005.
2005 Ariella Budick, “Enlisting in the Army of Art.” New York Newsday, New York, NY, May 12, 2005.
2005 Carol Vogel, “War & Pieces by Artists.” New York Times, New York, NY, May 6, 2005.
2002 Roberta Smith, “Art in Review: Allison Smith, Ellen Altfest.” New York Times, New York, NY, October 4, 2002.
INVITED ARTIST TALKS & PANELS
2024 Moderator, Unexpected Connections: Quilting and the Social Fabric, Saint Joseph’s Arts Foundation, San Francisco, CA
2024. Moderator, VISITING FIRE : tending lands, conversations, and stories, Villa Albertine, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2024 Panelist, MATRIX series Curator's Forum, U.C. Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
2023 Moderator, Full Circle: de Young Open artists in conversation, de Young Museum, , San Francisco, CA
2023 Artist Talk (in conversation with Maud Newton), The Compass Rose, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco, CA
2022 Artist Talk, Discussant, Quilt Study Days: Conversations at the Seams of Culture, Art, and History, U.C. Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
2023 The Compass Rose, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco, CA
2021 Another Crossing: Excavating Histories: Technique, Research, and Collaboration, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
2019 In A Body as Queer as Nature, Lambda Literary Festival, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Sculpture for Society Panel, Cleveland Sculptors Network, Cleveland, OH
2018 In conversation with Christina Zetterlund, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
2018 In conversation with Jessica Ingram, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, CA
2017 In conversation with Anastasia James, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
2017 Common Goods (with Judith Leemann), Cambridge Historical Society, Cambridge Common Park, Cambridge, MA
2015 In conversation with Jane Kimball: Source Materiel, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2014 Co-organizer, Presenter, The Curative Object Symposium, Contemporary Art Forum series, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2015 Source Materiel, Signal Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö, Sweden
2015 Here we LTTR, Tensta Konsthall, Tensta, Sweden
2015 Decad, Berlin, Germany
2015 Art from Research Panel, ARTspace, College Art Association Annual Conference, New York, NY
2014 Artists on Art Series, Photography and the American Civil War exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2014 Set Dressing, Arts Club of Chicago, IL
2014 Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2013 Craft and Folk Art Museum/California State University, Department of Art, Los Angeles, CA
2013 Trench Art, Subjective Histories of Sculpture Series, SculptureCenter, Vera List Center for Art & Politics, New York, NY
2012 In conversation with Jennifer DeVere Brody, Precarious Performance, History of Art Department/Theater Dance and Performance Studies, UC Berkeley, CA
2012 ReMODEL: Sculpture Education Now Symposium, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2012 Salon, International Studio and Curatorial Program, Brooklyn, NY
2012 Material Culture as Cultural Material Panel, New Approaches to Presenting American Art Symposium, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2011 Expanding Craft/Expanding Objects Panel, Situated: Time-based Art and Neighborhood Ecologies Symposium, University of California, Berkeley, CA
2011 Craft Forward Symposium, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2010 Huckleberry Finn Exhibition, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
2010 American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life Exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
2010 YES Symposium: The Persistence of Optimism, Tang Teaching Museum and ArtGallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
2010 Unruly Work: Queer Art and Activism Panel, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2008 Post-Studio Lessons: Teaching Art in the 21st Century Think Tank, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2008 Crafting Protest Panel, Vera List Center for Art & Politics, New York, NY
2007 In conversation with Nato Thompson, Initial Public Offerings (I.P.O.): New Objects, New Audiences Series, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2007 Exploring the Rise of Reenactment as a Form of Public Memory Panel, Ahistoric Occasion: The Uses of History in Contemporary Art Symposium, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and The Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
2006 Artists Speak: Conversations on Contemporary Art with Glenn D. Lowry, Museum of Modern Art, New York
2005 Who Cares: Beauty & Its Discontents Think Tank, Creative Time, New York, NY
2005 Spencer Museum of Art and University of Kansas, Art Department, Lawrence, KS
2005 In conversation with Jeffrey Uslip, Initial Public Offerings (I.P.O.) Series, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2005 Log Cabin Symposium, Vera List Center for Art and Politics and Artists Space, New York, NY
VISITING ARTIST LECTURES & CRITIQUES
2023 San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
2019 Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
2018 School of Art, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
2017 Nomad 9 Interdisciplinary MFA Program, Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, CT
2016 Kansas City Art Institute, Fiber Department, Kansas City, MO
2016 San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2016 Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
2015 Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ
2014 Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
2013 The Critique Program, San Francisco, CA
2013 University of California, Davis, MFA Program, CA
2013 University of California, Berkeley, Department of Art Practice, CA
2012 Sonoma State University, Department of Art and Art History, Rohnert Park, CA
2012 Temple Contemporary/ Tyler School of Art, Foundations Program, Philadelphia, PA
2012 Mildred’s Lane, Beach Lake, PA
2011 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Fiber & Material Studies Department, Chicago, IL
2011 Mills College, MFA Program, Oakland, CA
2010 Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
2009 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2009 Mildred’s Lane, Beach Lake, PA
2009 Massachusetts College of Art, MFA Program, Boston, MA
2009 Rhode Island School of Design, Glass Department, Providence, RI
2009 University of California, Berkeley, MFA Program, CA
2009 Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University, MFA Program, St. Louis, MO
2008 Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, MFA Art Department, Minneapolis, MN
2008 Mildred’s Lane, Beach Lake, PA
2008 School of Visual Arts, Fine Arts Department, New York, NY
2008 California College of the Arts, MFA Social Practice Program, San Francisco, CA
2008 Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN
2007 School of Visual Arts, MFA Program, New York, NY
2007 Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts, MFA Program, New Brunswick, NJ
2007 Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA
2007 Cranbrook Academy of Art, Sculpture Department, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2007 University of Southern California Roski School of Fine Arts, MFA Program, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Keynote Lecture, University of the Arts, College of Art & Design, MFA Program, Philadelphia, PA
2006 Florida International University, Miami, FL
2006 Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL
2006 Maryland Institute College of Art, Fiber Department/Sculptural Studies, Baltimore, MD
2006 Performance Studies Department, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York, NY
2006 Maine College of Art, MFA Program, Portland, ME
2006 Yale School of Art, Sculpture Department, New Haven, CT
2006 Parsons School of Design, Fine Arts Department, New York, NY
2006 Rhode Island School of Design, Textiles Department, Providence, RI
2005 Constance Howard Resource and Research Centre, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK
2005 Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, England, UK
2005 New York University Steinhardt School, Studio Art Department, New York, NY
2005 Graduate Thesis Committee, Columbia University School of the Arts, Visual Arts Division, New York, NY
2005 Rhode Island School of Design, Glass Department, Providence, RI
2005 Undergraduate and Graduate Critiques, Rhode Island School of Design, Textiles Department, Providence, RI
2005 Yale University School of Art, Sculpture Department, New Haven, CT
2004 Barnard College, Fine Arts Department, New York, NY
2004 Rhode Island School of Design, Printmaking Department, Providence, RI
2002 New York University Steinhardt School, Studio Art Department, New York, NY
2002 Rhode Island School of Design, Glass Department, Providence, RI
2001 Rhode Island School of Design, Glass Department, Providence, RI
2000 The Corcoran College of Art & Design, Sculpture Department, Washington, DC
2000 Andrew Mellon Visiting Artist Lecture, Pratt Institute, Visual Arts Program, Brooklyn, NY
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Arario Gallery, Cheonan, South Korea
Art, Design and Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, CA
Birmingham Art Museum, AL
Brooklyn Museum, NY
Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, IL
Clifford Chance, New York, NY
de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco, CA
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY
Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN
Landfill Archive of Socially Engaged Artworks, thelandfill.org
Linda Pace Foundation, San Antonio, TX
Living as Form Archive of Socially Engaged Practices, Creative Time, New York, NY
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
New York Public Library, NY
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY
Queens Museum, NY
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI
Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Western Michigan University
Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS
University Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
Vera List Center, New School, New York, NY
West Collection, Oaks, PA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
EDUCATION
1999–00 Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program, New York, NY
1999 MFA Sculpture, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT
1995 BFA Fine Arts: Sculpture, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
1995 BA Psychology, Eugene Lang College, New School for Social Research, New York, NY
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2022– Professor, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2018– Dean of Fine Arts, California College of the Arts, Oakland and San Francisco, CA
2017–18 Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon University School of the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA
2013–17 Associate Professor, California College of the Arts, Oakland and San Francisco, CA
2008–13 Assistant Professor, California College of the Arts, Oakland and San Francisco, CA
