Galerie Lelong
Kiki Smith
--
"Flight"
Kiki Smith, Columba, 2025, bronze, 50" × 71" × 1" (127 cm × 180.3 cm × 2.5 cm), #96905.01, Alt # GN#1325,KS-15121, Format of original photography: high res TIFFs.
A multidisciplinary artist—working in sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, objects, stained glass, and tapestry—Kiki Smith has been producing a body of work of remarkable coherence for over four decades. Far from being scattered, this diversity of media reveals, on the contrary, a strong underlying theme that runs through her entire body of work: the continuity and unity of life. Humans, animals, and plants are linked in an unbroken chain that stretches from the microcosm of the cell to the cosmic infinite. A thread that the artist can draw from observing the bark of birch trees near her home, pigeons in Manhattan parks, a full moon and the Milky Way, but also from reading Lewis Carroll, an anatomy book, poems by Emily Dickinson, tales and legends… From all of this, with complete sincerity—because she cannot do otherwise, she says—she crafts and weaves a visual narrative whose appeal has grown ever stronger over the years.
This exhibition is the artist’s tenth at Galerie Lelong, marking 25 years of collaboration. It combines bronzes, two large stained-glass windows, drawings, and a very large print. FLIGHT is the title chosen by the artist.
Solo show of Kiki Smith
From May 21 to July 11, 2026
The gallery
The creation of the gallery in 1945 in Paris by Aimé Maeght was marked, during the first thirty years, by the presentation of major artists such as Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Alberto Giacometti, Eduardo Chillida, Antoni Tàpies, and Francis Bacon. Upon Maeght’s passing in 1981, the gallery took its current name and was led by three equal partners: Jacques Dupin, Daniel Lelong, and Jean Frémon (J. Dupin passed away in 2012, the same year D. Lelong stepped down as president, handing over the role to J. Frémon, the current director of both the Paris and New York galleries).
From the 1980s onwards, significant artists such as Pierre Alechinsky, Louise Bourgeois, Konrad Klapheck, Jannis Kounellis, and Joan Miró, among others, joined the gallery. Galerie Lelong New York opened in 1985 and has been led since 1990 by Mary Sabbatino, expanding the program to major figures of the Latin American art scene: Alfredo Jaar, Ana Mendieta, Cildo Meireles, Hélio Oiticica, and Zilia Sánchez.
Today, the gallery continues its history, showcasing leading artists from the global art scene such as Etel Adnan, Marc Desgrandchamps, Leonardo Drew, Barry Flanagan, Günther Förg, Hyunsun Jeon, David Hockney, Nalini Malani, David Nash, Jaume Plensa, Arnulf Rainer, Paula Rego, Christine Safa, Kiki Smith, Nancy Spero, and Barthélémy Toguo.
The gallery has developed the production of monumental sculptures intended for public spaces with artists such as Jaume Plensa, Ursula von Rydingsvard, and Jean Dubuffet, thanks to a privileged relationship with the Dubuffet Foundation.
Gallery artists
Etel Adnan, Pierre Alechinsky, Alechinsky & Appel, Karel Appel, James Brown, Eduardo Chillida, Nicola De Maria, Marc Desgrandchamps, Leonardo Drew, Jean Dubuffet, Simone Fattal, Barry Flanagan, Günther Förg, Ficre Ghebreyesus, Andy Goldsworthy, Sarah Grilo, Jane Hammond, David Hockney, Frank Horvat, Jean-Baptiste Huynh, Hyunsun Jeon, Konrad Klapheck, Jiří Kolář, Jannis Kounellis, Nalini Malani, Henri Michaux, Joan Miró, David Nash, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Jaume Plensa, Arnulf Rainer, Alison Saar, Christine Safa, Sean Scully, Kate Shepherd, Kiki Smith, Nancy Spero, Antoni Tàpies, Mildred Thompson, Barthélémy Toguo, Richard Tuttle, Juan Uslé, Marion Verboom, Fabienne Verdier, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Jan Voss, Tom Wesselmann, Wang Yan Cheng
