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Shavana Smiley (b. 1992, Tucson, AZ) is a cosmic interdisciplinary artist living in Brooklyn, New York.
She received a BFA with honors from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015. Since then, she has exhibited across the United States. Her many exhibitions include shows with Field of Play, Monica King Projects, Masur Museum, The Border Projects, Sullivan Galleries, McNichols Civic Center, and Zhou B Art Center. She is a recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including the Nippon Steel Presidential Award, Goldman Sachs Scholarship, and the Odyssey Travel Grant. Her work is featured in Friend of the Artist volume 21, along with Studio Visit Magazine volume 53. She was also recently featured in the Young Space Digest No. 82.
Art is the vessel through which I journey into the infinite, drifting among the stars and tracing the elegant curves of spacetime. I am drawn to the radiant glow of distant suns, the breath of life they bestow, and the quiet, luminous flame that dwells within us all. Through my creations, I reach for answers to the eternal question of meaning, weaving light and shadow into a dance between the cosmos and the soul.
“My art is the way I re-establish the bonds that unite me to the universe. It is a return to the maternal source.”
—Ana Mendieta