Barbara Turner Smith has been at the forefront of artistic movements in Southern California for over 50 years, particularly feminist art and performance. Her artwork—which ranges from paintings, drawings, and artist’s books to installations, videos, and performances, and often involves her own body—explores concepts that strike at the core of human nature, including male and female sexuality, sensuality, physical and spiritual sustenance, and death. Smith received her BA from Pomona College in 1953 and MFA in 1971 from University of California, Irvine where she was a founding member of F-Space with Chris Burden and Nancy Buchanan. She has exhibited widely since the 1960s, and her work been represented in several historic survey exhibitions that include Whatever Happened to Sex in Scandinavia?, Office for Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway, 2009, and WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, MoCA, Los Angeles, 2007, State of Mind, New California Art since 1970, Orange County Museum and Bronx Museum and The Radicalization of a 50’s Housewife at University of California, Irvine. She is represented by The Box Gallery, Los Angeles.
