About
Megan Smith is a multidisiplanary artist. She has an interest in sculpture, installation, printmaking, and fibers. She is currently based in Bloomington, Indiana, and is an MFA candidate at Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture, + Design of Indiana University. She completed her BFA at Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Megan is also currently an Associate Instructor at the Eskenazi School and has previously worked as a shop technician and a studio assistant for various artists. Her work has most recently been displayed in exhibitions at the Backspace Gallery (Bloomington, IN), Indianapolis Art Center (Indianapolis, IN), and FAR Center for Contemporary Arts (Bloomington, IN). Her work has also been recently published in the 28th edition of the CANVAS Creative Arts Magazine.
Artist Statement
My work does not belong in our world. I have fabricated a new world where my art lives. It is built on aspects of childhood nostalgia, utopias, and fantasy. It is whimsical, colorful, lively, and delicious. Everything is always seen and done as if you had on rose-colored glasses. Every aspect appears to be non-tarnished and sugar coated. This is a personal safe space and charming escape.
A few essential qualities in this work include color, repetition, scale, and materiality. A carefully crafted color palette of bright and pastel hues has fully consumed the work. Repetition is used to depict a great sense of order and abundance. Scale is exaggerated in ways where objects are familiar to us, while simultaneously inducing curiosity. This world is shared and discovered by viewers through the use of physical immersive installations, videos, and performance. Video activates the work with the use of performance. However, it is still necessary to present the audience with the physical material installation. Each piece is a portal welcoming everyone into my world. Therefore, it is imperative that people look inside my candy-colored refrigerator that is full of tufted cakes, walk around my pink shopping cart that is overflowing with paper strawberries, and see the ruffled details on each garment up close and personal.