• "What can a coloring book reveal about the absurdity of carceral logic?"
  by Allison Noelle Conner, LA Times, 2023 "
• Sable Elyse Smith Responds to the Rigged Logic of the US Criminal Justice System"
  By Matthew McClean, Frieze, 2020
• "Sable Elyse Smith on Visualizing the Carceral State"
  Video Interview, Artforum, 2020
• "Sable Elyse Smith: Ordinary Violence"
  Haggerty Museum of Art, 2019
• "Vanishing Points"
  Sable Elyse Smith in conversation with Sara O'Keeffe, Mousse, 2019
• "Firsthand at Arm's Length"
  By Diana Hamilton, Art in America, 2018

• Sable Elyse Smith: And Blue In A Decade Where It Finally Means Sky,
  Texts by Sable Elyse Smith, Horace Ballard, Johanna Burton, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, and Christina Sharpe
  JTT, New York, and Regen Projects, Los Angeles 2022
• ...In that Empire
  By Sable Elyse Smith and Cal Siegel, Pacific, 2019
• C.R.E.A.M.
  Texts by Jessica Lynn, A. H. Jerriod Avant, and Sable Elyse Smith
  Wendy's Subway, the Highline, New York, the Art for Justice Fund, 2018
• Sable Elyse Smith: Landscapes & Playgrounds
  Artist book, Limited edition of 115 +25 Special edition, Sming Sming Books, 2017
• Fictions
  Exhibition Catalogue, The Studio Museum in Harlem, 2017
• Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon
  Exhibition Catalogue, New Museum, 2017
• Ecstatic Resilience
  By Sable Elyse Smith, written in parallel with Lauren Halsey: Kingdom Splurge (4), Recess Art, 2016
• Blue Is Ubiquitous and Forbidden
  Artist Book, Limited edition of 150, 2015

b. 1986, Los Angeles, CA
Lives and works in New York, NY

2013 M.F.A., Parsons, The New School for Design, New York, NY
2011 B.A., Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, GA

Solo exhibitions

2024
Studio Sound: Sable Elyse Smith, If you unfolded us, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY

2023
FAIR GROUNDS, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA

2022
Tithe, JTT, New York, NY

2019
or the song spilling out, Carlos/Ishikawa, London, UK

2018
BOLO: Be on (the) lookout, JTT, New York, NY
Ordinary Violence, Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI
How We Tell stories to Children, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA
Sable E. Smith, CONDO, JTT hosted by greengrassi and Corvi-Mora, London, UK

2017
Ordinary Violence, Queens Museum, Queens, NY
and then the street lights-like a warning bell, Assembly (Recess), Brooklyn, NY

2015
Blue is Ubiquitous and Forbidden, SOHO20 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

Collaborative Projects

2019
Mirror/Echo/Tilt, New Museum, New York, NY (with Melanie Crean and Shaun Leonardo)

Selected Group Exhibitions & Screenings

2024
Burning Down the House: Rethinking Family, Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland
Seeing Through Stone, San José Museum of Art, San José, CA

2023
Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Flesh & Flowers, Made in America, curated by Lauren Taschen, Paris, France
Playscape, JTT, New York, NY
Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX (Travelled to Newcomb Art Museum, New Orleans, LA, 2023; The Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA)
Not For Sale, NXTHVN, New Haven
Wa Na Wari, Seattle, WA

2022
Introverse: Allegory Today, 80WSE Gallery, New York University, NY
To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood, The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston, MA
Combinations, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, New York, NY. Curated by Damien Davis and Alaina Simone
Stars Don’t Stand Still in the Sky: A Tribute to Lawrence Weiner, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI
The Milk of Dreams, 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, IT. Curated by Cecilia Alemani
Quiet as It’s Kept, Whitney Biennial 2022, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. Curated by David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards
Not only will I stare, Christian-Green Gallery, University of Texas, Austin, TX
Prison Nation, The Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
This Tender, Fragile Thing, Jack Shainman Gallery, The School, Kinderhook, NY

2021
Closer to Life: Drawings and Works on Paper in the Marieluise Hessel Collection, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Just Above My Head, JTT, New York, NY
Wild Frictions, Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), Cincinnati, OH & Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin
Off the Record, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, conceived by Okwui Enwezor, New Museum, New York, NY
Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH

2020
Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY. Curated by Nicole Fleetwood (Traveled to Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, Birmingham, AL, 2021; Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI, 2022)
SI ONSITE, Swiss Institute, New York, NY
In lieu of an ocean (send flowers), curated by Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY. Curated by Antwaun Sargent and Matt Wycoff
Colored People Time: Mundane Futures, Quotidian Pasts, and Banal Presents, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA

2019
On Refusal: Representation & Resistance in Contemporary American Art, MAC Belfast, Belfast, IE
Great Force, ICA VCU, Richmond, VA
Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, OSilas Gallery, Concordia College, Bronxville, NY
Colored People Time: Banal Presents, ICA Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Poetry Is Not a Luxury, Center for Book Arts, New York, NY
The Smiths, Marlborough, London, UK
MOOD: Studio Museum Artists in Residence 2018-19, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY
Radical Reading Room, Studio Museum 127, Harlem, NY
No One Is Innocent, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY (screening)
The Land That I Live In, Matthew Brown Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2018
Moving Body, Moving Study, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Brooklyn, NY
Walls Turned Sideways: Artists Confront the Justice System, CAMH, Houston, TX. (Traveled to Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA, 2019)
Production Values, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA SITElines.2018: Casa Tomada, SITE Santa Fe, Sante Fe, NM (cat.)
Agora, High Line, New York, NY (cat.)
Prison Nation, Aperture, New York, NY. Curated by Nicole R. Fleetwood. (Traveled to Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, OH, 2018; Southeast Museum of Photography 32114, Daytona, FL, 2019; and University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, 2020)

2017
Glass Ceiling: Art of Resilience and Fragility, UrbanGlass, Brooklyn, NY Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon, New Museum, New York, NY. Curated by Johanna Burton (cat.)
Other Romances, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY
"Elaine, let's get the hell out of here", Nichelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY. Curated by Ashton Cooper
Fictions, Studio Museum, New York, NY. Curated by Connie H. Choi and Hallie Ringle (cat.)
UPTOWN: nasty women / bad hombres, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY. Curated by Rocio Aranda-Alvarado
Memory is a Tough Place, Kellen Gallery at The New School, New York, NY. Curated by Macushla Robinson
Watchlist, SIGNAL, Brooklyn, NY. Curated by Goedele Bartholomeeusen and Kat Herriman
Your Body is a Battleground: VOLTA 2017, SVOLTA NY, New York, NY. Curated by Wendy Vogel
The Exposed Suture, Rond-Point Projects, Marseille, FR. Curated by Natasha Marie Llorens
Who Gets To Look, UC Irvine Galleries, Irvine, CA. Curated by Virginia Arce
FAWC Visual Arts Fellows Exhibition, Provincetown Art Association & Museum, Provincetown, MA
Without a Body, Andrea Rosen Gallery 2, New York, NY. Curated by SIGNAL

2016
Emerging Arts Fellowship Exhibition 2016, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY
With Liberty and (in)Justice For All?, Gateway Project Spaces, Newark, NJ
Partner in Crime, Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University, Newark, NJ
Focus on the Funk: Journeys, Serpentine Gallery & Birbeck Cinema, London, UK
Over the Wall, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
Comrade What is Your Visual Bond?, Sunday Sessions: Screening, MoMA PS1, New York, NY
History As I Know It, On the Ground Floor Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
History As I Know It, IMPeRFeCT Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2015
La Lucha II Dom & Haiti Visions of Tomorrow, Andrew Freedman Home, Bronx, NY
Dis Place, The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, NY
Inherited, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY
Consequential Translations, Centro Cultural de Espana, Santo Domingo, DR
La Lucha, Rio Penthouse Gallery, New York, NY
RESPOND, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY

2014
Yeah That's What She Said, Specials On C, New York, NY

2013
Gaze Series #5: Transgressions, Artist Television Access, San Francisco, CA
Contemporary Temporary Sound Works And Music, organized by Daniel Neuman, Eyebeam, New York, NY
Present Futures, The Mandrake, Los Angeles, CA

2012
Silencing The Self, 25 East Gallery, New York, NY

Selected Curatorial Projects

2022
Beneath Tongues, Swiss Institute, New York, NY

2020
SI ONLINE: FEAR TOUCH POLICE, Swiss Institute, New York, NY

2019
C.R.E.A.M., High Line Art and The Kitchen, New York, NY

Selected Performances & Readings

2022
Belly of the Wail: A Score and Duet, Swiss Institute, New York, NY

2018
Performing Fictions, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

2017
LANDSCAPES & PLAYGROUNDS Book Launch, Recess Assembly, Brooklyn, NY 2016
Artist Love Poets, The Poetry Project, New York, NY
The Listening Party, MoMA Pop Rally, New York, NY
Sable Elyse Smith & Camel Collective, The Poetry Project, New York, NY
Reading & Launch Selfish Magazine: Issue 3, Over the Eight, Brooklyn, NY,

2015
Mirror/Echo/Tilt, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture: New York, New York, NY
Reading: Blue is Ubiquitous and Forbidden, SOHO20 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Sifting, The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, NY
“AUNTSforcamera” Artist-Devised Tour, New Museum, New York, NY

2014
Heart, Voice, Song: Three Meeting Performances, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
Fallow Time: Movement Research Festival: Through Body, Through Earth, Through Speech,
Queens Museum, New York, NY

2013
Dissident Futures Art and Ideals Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Through Body, Through Earth, Through Speech, Eyebeam, New York, NY
Performative Reading Event for Daily Violence with Huong Ngo, The Window at 125, New York,NY
2012
The Future is Fantastic (If You Want It), New Museum, New York, NY

Selected Lectures

2019
Carceral Aesthetics: Sable Elyse Smith and Nicole R. Fleetwood in conversation at the ICA, London
Melanie Crean, Shaun Leonardo, and Sable Elyse Smith in Conversation with Nicole R. Fleetwood, New Museum, New York, NY. July 25.

2017
Public Art and Prison Reform. Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA. April 20.

2016
Why Explicit?: Panel w/ Lorraine O’Grady & Sondra Perry, in conjunction with Ellen Cantor
Exhibitions. Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, New York, NY
Afrofuturism Conference 2016: #BLACKISVIRAL: Panel: Hyper Visibility of the Black Image w/Caitlin Cherry & Devin Kenny, The New School, New York, NY
In Conversation w/Shaun Leonardo, March 23, 2016, BRIC, New York, NY
Comrade What is Your Visual Bond? Sunday Sessions: Panel, MoMA PS1, New York, NY

2015
New Museum R&D Seminar: Persona, Selected Participant, New Museum, New York, NY
Dis Place: Artist Talk, Moderated by Jessica Lynne, MoCADA, Brooklyn, NY
I Can’t Breath: Conversation w/ Shaun Leonardo Moderated by Kimberly Drew. BRIC, Brooklyn, NY

2014
In Conversation with Ayana Jackson and Monique Long. Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York, NY
Subtleties of Resistance. Free University at Kara Walker’s “A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar
Baby” In dialogue with Nicole Fleetwood, New York, NY

2013
Culture Push Honorary Fellow: Reading & Writing Group, as a member of the Fantastic Futures collective.
iLab Residency: Through Body, Through Earth, Through Speech, as a member of the Fantastic Futures collective. New York, NY

2012
It Is All Here. Memories Can’t Wait, panel participant. December 14, 2012. The International Center for Photography, New York, NY.

2011
History, Earth, Flesh. Panel participant at the Liberal Arts Symposium. April 3, 2011. Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, GA

Selected Grants, Awards, and Fellowships

2024
The Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize

2023
Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship
The Swiss Institute Benefit Gala, honouring Sable Elyse Smith, New York
The Queens Museum Benefit Gala, honouring Sable Elyse Smith, New York

2020
The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant

2018
Studio Museum in Harlem Artist in Residence

2017
New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Program in Film and Media

2016
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant
Queens Museum/Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists
Recess Art Critical Writing Fellow
Socrates Sculpture Park Emerging Artist Fellowship
Creative Capital Fellow

2015
Art Matters Foundation
Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture

Selected Collections

The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI
Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
ICA Miami, Miami, FL
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The New School, New York, NY
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Aeromoto Library, Mexico City, MX
Center for Book Arts, New York, NY
Everygreen State College Library, Olympia, WA
Free Black Women’s Library, New York, NY
MoMA Library, New York, NY
Princeton University Library, Princeton, NJ
Rare Book and Manuscript LIbrary, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Ubana and Champaign, IL
SFMOMA Library, San Francisco, CA
Smithsonian Libraries, Washington D.C.