Valerie Hammond and Kiki Smith

Valerie Hammond is an American artist who creates works of sensual botanical, gothic, and corporeal imagery. “I have always been drawn to places and objects that are full of mystery,” she says. She is fascinated by stories which blur reality; her work plays with the dichotomy between what is seen and the sensation it provokes.

Hammond received her MFA from the University of California at Berkeley, where she was awarded the Eisner Award. Her work is included in public and private collections such as the Walker Art Center; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Library of Congress; the New York Public Library’s Print and Drawing Collection; The Getty Museum; the Progressive Collection; the Chazen Museum of Art; Madison Museum of Contemporary Art; the Grand Palais Museum; and Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection. Hammond is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the New York Foundation of the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Peter S. Reed Foundation. Hammond’s most recent solo exhibitions include Blue, Lisa Sette Gallery, Phoenix, AZ, 2021; The Eyes Have It, Lehman College Art Gallery, New York, NY, 2021; Then and Now, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY, 2021; Fragile, Planthouse Gallery, New York, NY, 2020; Double Vision: Curated by Jane Holzer, Leila Heller Gallery, New York, NY, 2019.

Kiki Smith has been known since the 1980s for her multidisciplinary work that explores embodiment and the natural world. She uses a broad variety of materials to continuously expand and evolve a body of work that includes sculpture, printmaking, photography, drawing, and textiles.

Smith has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions worldwide including over 25 museum exhibitions. Her work has been featured at five Venice Biennales, including the 2017 edition. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2017 was awarded the title of Honorary Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Previously, Smith was recognized in 2006 by TIME Magazine as one of the “TIME 100: The People Who Shape Our World.” Other awards include the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture in 2000; the 2009 Edward MacDowell Medal; the 2010 Nelson A. Rockefeller Award, Purchase College School of the Arts; the 2013 U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts, conferred by Hillary Clinton; and the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center, among others. Smith’s most recent solo exhibitions include Inner Bodies at Fondation Thalie, Paris, 2022; Blue Night at Giralda Plaza, Coral Gables, Florida, 2021–20; From Inside at Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris, 2021; Light at Pace Gallery, Geneva, 2020; Water at Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, New York, 2020.