B. 1992, London, UK Lives and works in London
Maxima Smith is an artist and organiser based in London. Working across moving image, installation, photography and performance, she uses reenactment to explore feminine archetypes, family relationships and how identity is constructed, performed and disrupted.
Her practice approaches performance as a way of learning through doing. Often casting family members and herself, she uses the camera as an excuse to stage scenarios and repeated actions that explore how behaviour shifts when mediated by the camera.
In parallel she serves on the National Executive Committee of Artists’ Union England as co-secretary.
Education:
Dutch Art Institute, MA, October 2021–August 2023
Slade School of Fine Art, BA (4 years) 1st Class Honours, September 2012–July 2016
Central St Martins, Fine Art Foundation, Distinction, September 2011–May 2012
Awards/Commissions:
A-n Support Creative Practice Funding 2022
Black Dogs Collective Funding, 2019
Queen Mary's Commission and Award, 2017
The Queens Hall Digital Commission, 2017
Alfred Rich Scholarship, 2012
Solo Exhibitions:
2024:
Crocodile Tears, Asylum Studio’s Gallery, (Suffolk, U.K)
LADA Screens: Maxima Smith – Crying with my Family, Live Art Development Agency, (London, UK)
2021:
The Window Part 1: Ode to a Window Cleaner, The Clarence (London, UK)
2018:
Puppet Portraits, The French House (London, UK)
Ode to a Window Cleaner, The People's Palace (East London)
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2025:
All That is Solid Melts Like My Blush After a Long Shift, Galerie Amu, (Prague, Czech Republic)
Film Festival Oberhausen, (Oberhausen, Germany) (Film removed by artist due to commitment to Strike Germany)
Half Pints, Full Talent, The French House, (London, UK)
Cause Unknown - an evening of Performances, Des Baines (London, UK)
2024:
Mirroring touring show: theater deuitkijk, desloot, de appel, Theatre Bellevue, (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
2023:
Where the Moon is up, Centrales Fies, (Trento, Italy)
2022:
Visions in the Nunnery, Nunnery Gallery, (London, UK)
La Dea Invisibile | Invisible Goddess, Magazzino Gallery Finissage, (Venice, Italy)
2021:
Dillwyn Smith, Maxima Smith, Woom Collaboration, The Round Chapel, (London, UK)
2020:
Visions in the Nunnery–Programme 1– Hetain Patel, The Nunnery Gallery (London, UK)
Re-enchanted Matter, APT Gallery (London, UK)
To all our absent dialogues, 155a Gallery (London, UK)
2019:
Pixelache2019 Oranssi, (Kaasutehtaankatu Helsinki)
2018:
Visions in the Nunnery- Programme 1–Tina Keane, The Nunnery Gallery (London, UK)
Retrospective, Queens Hall Digital Gallery Space (Northumberland, UK)
The Bomb Factory Artist Film Festival, AWEsome Art Space–Art Week Exeter (Exeter, UK)
Malevolent Eldritch Shrieking, Attercliffe (Sheffield, UK
2017:
The Next Thing, Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre (Bury, UK)
The Working Artist: The East London Group, Nunnery Gallery (London, UK)
Two Glass Eyes Are Better Than One, Thames-Side Studios (London, UK)
Bow Open Show by Alex Chinneck, Nunnery Gallery (London, UK)
The Bomb Factory Film Festival 3, The Bomb Factory (London, UK)
Talks and events:
2024:
LADA Screens; Maxima Smith, discussion with Tania Camara
Side Hustling for a Sustainable Practice, panel discussion with Juliet Jacques & Philomena Pirecki, Somerset House
The One Minutes, Mirroring, a conversation with the Artists
2023:
Crying with Friends performance: Centrales Fies
2022:
La Dea Invisibile | Invisible Goddess–Conversation with the Artist, Magazzino Gallery Finissage, (Venice, Italy)
2019:
Future Fossils, Turf Projects, London
2018:
We should all be Mothers, discussion group at the loft, Croydon Art Store, Art Licks Weekend
2017:
East London Group Then & Now, Panel Discussion at The Nunnery Gallery
The Nunnery Gallery Frieze First Thursdays, Live Performance evening of Ode to a Window Cleaner