Thew Smoak
based in NY and CT
raised in Tokyo 東京 and Washington DC
thew.smoak@gmail.com
@thewsmoak
Education
2022 Yale University, MFA Painting and Printmaking (2019—2022)
2021 Gee’s Bend Quilters, Apprenticeship
2019 Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture
2010 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, BA Art & BA Political Theory
Fellowships & Awards
2023 Teaching Fellow, Yale Norfolk School of Art
2023 The Emily Mason - Wolf Kahn Fellow, Vermont Studio Center
2022 Graduate Research Fellow, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University
2022 Yale Norfolk Community Art Grant, Yale Norfolk School of Art & Norfolk Foundation for Living
2021 Studio Fellow, Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (Yale CCAM), Yale University
2020 Dean’s Critical Practice Award, Yale School of Art
2016 Vermont Studio Center
Solo Exhibitions
2023 August is Gone… Goodnight, Wolfgang Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2023 Late Summer, Latitude Gallery, New York, NY
2023 Silver Toast, Louis Reed, New York, NY
2021 Body Without Organs, Bad Water Gallery, Knoxville, TN
2018 The Sun, The Egg, The Finger, Galería Alegría, Madrid, Spain
Select Two-Person & Group Exhibitions
2024 Portrait of a Man, X Museum, Beijing, China
2024 Feira Material, two-person presentation w/ Feliciano Pop, by Louis Reed, Mexico City, MX
2023 A Room with a View, Vardan Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Springs Eternal, curated by Alexander DiJulio, The Fireplace Project, East Hampton, NY
2023 Mirror as Water, two-person show w/ Sara Rahmanian, The Stable, S-chanf, Switzerland
2023 Stable Friends II, The Stable, S-chanf, Switzerland
2022 Vibrant Matters, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, New York, NY
2022 I Sing the Body Electric, curated by Alexander DiJulio and Nio Vardan, Dune Aplin, East Hampton, NY
2022 Heartbreak Picnic, two-person show w/ Bhasha Chakrabarti, Grove London, London, UK
2022 YAMS, Young American Materialists, three-person show w/ Rachael Anderson and Bhasha Chakrabarti, ACROSSS, Milan, Italy
2022 Spectres, two-person show w/ Can Yağız, Yale Center for Collaborative Arts & Media (Yale CCAM), New Haven, CT
2022 Unfashionable, curated by Jayson Thompson and Xandra Beverlin, Pulse, Penthouse at Liberty Tower, New York, NY
2022 What a Glory to Be So Euphoric and Weak (collaborative performance) with Tura Oliveira, La Mama Galleria, New York, NY
2022 Reflections, curated by Michael McKinney, Drama Club US, New York, NY
2022 Layered, curated by Maddy Bohrer, Mad Eye Gallery, New York, NY
2022 Heartbreak Picnic, Pt. 2, two-person show w/ Bhasha Chakrabarti, Grove Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2022 Tiny Furniture, Green Shutter House, New Haven, CT
2022 Friends in Bricolage, Green Shutter House, New Haven, CT
2022 By Tomorrow, Jackson School of Global Affairs, Yale University, New Haven, CT
2022 If a Mountain Could Love, curated by Cody Tumblin, Circle Contemporary, Chicago, IL
2021 10286#, curated by A.L. Steiner, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT
2021 Soft Coverings: An Exhibition of Quilts, curated by Bhasha Chakrabarti, Online Exhibition
2020 Endless State, curated by Xinyi Cheng, Yui Kugimiya, and Jagdeep Raina, Skowhegan, New York, NY
2019 We Don’t Know Each Other, curated by A.L. Steiner, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT
2019 Earthy Anecdote, curated by Ben Estes, Situations Gallery, New York, NY
2019 ARCO, Galería Alegría, Madrid, Spain
2019 Big Summer T-Shirt Show, Ex Ovo Gallery, Dallas, TX
2019 Yorkshire Sculpture International, CLUB, Leeds, UK
Writings
2023 “An Account, An Encounter,” by Courtney McClellan, Burnaway Magazine
2022 “On Attachment: [Thew] Smoak,” Five Years of Critical Practice at Yale School of Art, by Marta Kuzma
2021 “Artist of the Week: [Thew] Smoak,” LVL3
2018 “Llega a Madrid la Gran APERTURA del Arte,” Architectural Digest Spain
2018 “De Maratón Artístico,” El País