Julia Kim Smith

The 26th Juried Art Exhibition
Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA
May 21-June 11, 2021
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

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

The Evacuation exhibiting in
The Red Wood
Curator: Julia Westerbeke

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

Protest is American As Fuck at
Printed Matter

The Daily Pad, Google Sex, and Why published in
Beaver the Exhibition the Book
Forward by Kristen J. Sollée, Editor: Naomi Elena Ramirez

Baltimore Actually featured on
Duff Goldman Instagram feed, July 27, 2020
Duff Goldman Instagram feed, March 12, 2020
The Bmore Creatives Instagram feed, January 3, 2020

Baltimore Actually sticker, T-shirt, and tote bag available at
Atomic Books, Baltimore, MD

Baltimore Actually sticker available at
Sideshow at The American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD

Julia Kim Smith is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has been featured by Angry Asian Man, Animal, Art F City, artnet News, 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 Maryland Film Festival. 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 serves on The Creative Alliance’s Board of Trustees. She 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. She 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.

Smith lives in Baltimore, Maryland with her family and the world’s most irritating dog, cats, and bird.

Through my work, I address issues of racism, sexism, misrepresentation, and underrepresentation through traditional and new media. In particular, I am interested in the pervasive influence of the internet and its tools on society. I use both 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 authors Cathy Park Hong (Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning), Antero Pietila (Not In My Neighborhood), Jess Row (Your Face In Mine, White Flights), and Wesley Yang (The Souls Of Yellow Folk: Essays).

“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

“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

“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

“funny stuff”
— Phil Yu, Angry Asian Man

“cheeky...brilliant”
— Wheelbarrow, Kidrobot KRonikle

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

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