Artist Spotlight: Sable Elyse Smith

Header Image: "Coloring Book 50", 2020. Screen printing ink and oil stick on paper.

Sable Elyse Smith is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York. The contextual backbone of her works lies in revealing the violence, both visible and invisible, in society. She’s talked about the prison system and those located within and outside of it. Using blown-up coloring books, Smith aims to underline just how pervasive the prison system is, presenting the rules as friendly, approachable pages within a children’s book.

Smith also uses familiar objects and reshapes them to create sculptural objects that speak of life within said prison system. Tables within a cafeteria are bolted together until it’s almost unrecognizable as tables. Packs of ramens are stacked high as if they’re cocaine or money. Her works recontextualize these familiar objects into something with deeper meanings.

View more of Sable Elyse Smith’s works on her Instagram.