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In praise of shadows
They said they would always be there and they were
Yet and still
An attempt to grasp an emotion, an enigma a transient state formed
Transitions are like shadows, simultaneously visible and invisible to the naked eye a reflection a tweak a flicker a manipulation of light
What permeates our core is sometimes indistinguishable
Emotions are the weights that one can feel but cannot articulate
In praise of shadows is an honoring and a refusal
It is a manifestation of those things that we cannot and will not see
But things that live in the dark always come to light and we must reckon with them Navigate them
And respect them

Anna Zorina Gallery is pleased to announce In praise of shadows, the Gallery’s first solo exhibition with Alexandria Smith. Smith’s latest body of work examines the manifestations of emotional expectations and permissions as they are projected onto human structures. It asks the question: How do our emotions emulate architectural confinement and impact our abilities to exist within our bodies?

Alexandria Smith (b. 1981, Bronx, New York) earned her BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University; MA in Art Education from New York University; and MFA in Painting and Drawing from Parsons The New School for Design. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2018-2019 Queens Museum/Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists, a Pollock-Krasner Grant, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Fellowship, the Virginia A. Myers Fellowship at the University of Iowa and the 2013-2015 Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship. Residencies include MacDowell, Bemis, Yaddo and LMCC Process Space. Recent exhibitions include her solo, Monuments to an Effigy at the Queens Museum, NY; The deCordova Biennial at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, MA; The Windows Invitational at the Davis Museum, MA and The Lure of the Dark: Contemporary Painters Conjure the Night at Mass MoCA, MA.

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