Marlene Smith, Untitled, graphite on tracing paper, 1986
2025 has been an exceptional year. Worldwide the march to the right has become increasingly surreal to me.
This exhibit ties together my obsession with my own family history and archive and my doom scrolling of social media. One minute enjoying an AI mash up of 90s dancehall, the next live footage from Dafur, Kinshasa, Gaza…
My starting point was a drawing of bridesmaids I’d made from a 1970s photo; little girls required to be “pretty”, obedient, compliant. Then an image from 1960s Birmingham, Alabama showed up in my timeline – four little girls who were murdered by the KKK.
I started riffing on power, presence and history, storytelling and comparing and contrasting images of young women. From Birmingham UK where I was born, Birmingham Alabama that I’ve read about, to Jamaica where my parents were born, to Kinshasa, Dafur and Gaza where in 2025 the world of Capital beyond control wreaks unabated violence.
I searched the internet for images of girls and they appeared - anonymous and without context. Nameless and unprotected. And yet so familiar.
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Marlene Smith is a British artist and curator, and one of the founding members of the BLK Art Group. She was director of The Public in West Bromwich and UK Research Manager for Black Artists and Modernism, a collaborative research project run by the University of the Arts London and Middlesex University.
She has recently exhibited work as part of ‘Women in Revolt!’ at Tate Britain; ‘The Place Is Here: The Work of Black Artists in 1980s Britain’ Nottingham Contemporary and ‘Connecting Thin Black Lines’ ICA, London.
marlene Smith
Under Glass
Modern Art Oxford
30 Pembroke St,
Oxford
OX1 1BP
28 October–16 November
Tuesday–Saturday 11am–6pm
Sunday 11am–4pm
Artist talk
1 November 4pm–6pm. All welcome.
