Jo Smail


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ARTBLOG - Dec 2021



Powerful show of art by women and non-binary artists working in the region today, at the Delaware Contemporary


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Jo Smail, another extremely well-known artist with a decades-long career, is represented by several complex works created with acrylic and fabric on canvas or board. Her abstractions are often autobiographical with references to her homeland, South Africa, and various life events from a studio fire to a stroke. Early in her career she came under the influence of American Color Field painting, and she remains fascinated by color and shape. Her works prove that abstraction can have content. Smail moved to Maryland to teach in 1985, and her impact on artists there has been important.

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FIELDS AND FORMATIONS - Sept 2021 - May 2022




A Survey of Mid-Atlantic Abstraction

Curated by Kristen Hileman


The Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE

September 3, 2021 – January 7, 2022


The American University Museum at the Katzen Art Center, Washington, DC

January 29, 2022 – May 22, 2022


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Baltimore magazine - November 2020



Jo Smail’s Visual Poetry Transforms Loss Into Joy


A BMA retrospective celebrates Baltimore’s most resilient, genre-busting visual artist.



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The Baltimore Sun - September 2020



2020 Fall Arts Preview - Baltimore Museum of Art



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Bmore Art - September 2020



Jo Smail's Visual Poetry


Artist Jo Smail in conversation with curator Kristen Hileman



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GOYA CONTEMPORARY - September 2020



Studio Visit with Jo Smail



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ARTFORUM - September 2020



Critics' Picks



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THE BROOKLYN RAIL - July 2020



In Conversation: Jo Smail with Louis Block



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BMA - Jo Smail: Flying with Remnant Wings - May 2020



The title of her retrospective comes from one of these newly crafted poems:


A bird says:

Check out those eyes

But he is mistaken

The eyes are painted on the butterfly’s wings

He dives in

And tears at his mistake

The butterfly escapes with remnant wings



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HYPERALLERGIC - May 2020



An Artist as Resilient as She Is Joyous.


Few artists have reinvented themselves in their prime the way Jo Smail has few have had to.


Barry Nemett

May 9, 2020



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Jo Smail: Flying with Remnant Wings Book



Jo Smail "Jo Smail: Flying with Remnant Wings" © 2020


Published in conjunction with the exhibitions "Jo Smail: Flying with Remnant Wings" shown at The Baltimore Museum of Art, March 1 – August 9, 2020 and "Jo Smail: Bees with Sticky Feet" shown at Goya Contemporary, March 18 – August 9, 2020.


This new artist book is 144 pages and features original images, poems, and essays.


Library of Congress Number 2020900771

ISBN: 978-1-7923-3015-5


$65


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Jo Smail Retrospective: Flying with Remnant Wings



The Baltimore Museum of Art

10 Art Museum Drive Baltimore, MD, 21218


1 March 2020 - 3 January 2021

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ArtfixDaily - 6 Feb 2020

Baltimore Museum of Art to Open 10 Shows in March as Part of 2020 Vision Focus on Women Artists

...Jo Smail: Flying with Remnant Wings March 1 – August 9, 2020 South African-born, Baltimore-based artist Jo Smail uses charged colors and abstract forms to convey the strangeness, vulnerability, and complicated beauty of contemporary life. The exhibition features 50 paintings and works on paper by Smail, as well as collages produced with fellow South African artist William Kentridge. The earliest works date to the late 1990s and early 2000s when the artist overcame a studio fire that destroyed all her previous paintings and a stroke that inhibited her movement and speech. Since then, Smail has continued to draw upon her daily experiences alongside a deep engagement with international literature and theory as she experiments with different media and compositional strategies. Her profound and unique works, accompanied by their poetic and irreverent titles, reflect an irrepressible joy and optimism while never shying away from a world always on the brink of destabilization....




Jo Smail: Bees with Sticky Feet



Goya Contemporary, Mill Center, Studio 214, 3000 Chestnut Avenue Baltimore, Maryland 21211


March 18, 2020 - Dec 20, 2020

Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 6pm - 8pm


The smell of oranges cooking filled our home

Little saucers of marmalade

Placed on the windowsills to set

Bees loved them

Bees with sticky feet


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Jo Smail: The Past is Present



Goya Contemporary, Mill Center, Studio 214, 3000 Chestnut Avenue Baltimore, Maryland 21211


September 13, 2017 - November 7, 2017

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Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 13, 2017 6pm - 8pm



Jo Smail & William Kentridge: Dialogue



Goya Contemporary, Mill Center, Studio 214, 3000 Chestnut Avenue Baltimore, Maryland 21211


September 9, 2015 - October 24, 2015

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Opening Reception:Wednesday, September 9, 2015 6pm - 8pm



Jo Smail: Leaning Over the Edge of the Moon



Goya Contemporary, Mill Center, Studio 214, 3000 Chestnut Avenue Baltimore, Maryland 21211


November 20, 2014 - February, 20 2015

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Opening Reception: Thursday, November 20, 2014 6pm - 8pm



Jo Smail: Degrees of Absence



Goya Contemporary, Mill Center, Studio 214 3000 Chestnut Avenue Baltimore, Maryland 21211


November 18, 2011 - February 21, 2012


Opening Reception: Friday, November 18th, 6pm - 8pm



Jo Smail: Waking Up from the Inside Out



"Waking Up from The Inside Out, 1998-2009" - A book on Smail's work with essays by Terence Malloon and Karen Wilken