Sean Smuda lives and works in Berlin. Recent paintings and performances between here and Dakar engage the image as an extension of biological, cultural, and technological environments. Through upcycled materials and public dialog they investigate art as defining social space and sustainability. Other projects include re-writing the archive, performance rooted in Contact Improvisation dance, experimental sound, animation, photography, and video. Curatorially, he runs Pirsig Projects, Berlin; has served as Cultural Liaison to Tours, France; and initiated Blown Derivatives, an international collaboration that investigates socio-economic borders after 9/11. Memory Zero, a project for MIT’s journal ARTMargins, was published in 2023. Recently, his work has been seen at Schlossmuseum Linz, AT; Partcours, Dakar, SN; BLACKOUT, Frankfurt (Oder); and MdW, Chicago. He attended l’Académie Royale des Beaux Art, Brussels; the Boston Museum School; and the Sass-Fee Institute, Berlin. His work is in many permanent collections, including the Walker Art Center.

Sean Smuda

Born Minneapolis, Minnesota
Lives and works in Berlin

Selected Exhibitions (*solo show)

2024

From Power Animal to Fear Animal, the Cultural History of Wolves. Curated by Mona Horncastle, Schlossmuseum, Linz, AT
Def Li War, Kenu, Partcours 12, Dakar, SN
Reclaim Reality, Rosalux, Berlin, DE

2023

Borrow No Sorrow, Artothek, Berlin, DE
12 Annual Partcours, Chez-Toi Design, Dakar, SG
Milchhof Pavillon, Berlin, DE

2022

*Résidence du Cap, Dakar, SG
BLACKOUT, Endmoräne, Frankfurt Oder, DE
The Myth is Gone, Kulturkapellen, Berlin, DE
BLIND VISION, Rathenau-Hallen, Berlin, DE

2021

*#NO., Kuelbs Collection, NY, NY/Berlin, DE
Artspring, Berlin, DE
The One That Got Away, Traffic Zone Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, US

2020

Kurt Mühlenhaupt Museum, Berlin, DE
Striding Bodies, International Network of Performance Art, Brussels, BE
Improvisation Film Festival, Elysium Gallery, UK
The Pain, Rava vavàra, IT
Me, Myself, I, Lehr/Kuelbs Projects, NY/Berlin, US/DE
Quar(t)antine, Performance Køkkenet, DK
In Isolation Together, ArtCore Gallery, UK

2019

DEZ, Meinblau, Berlin, DE
PEACE – don’t make me laugh // You A Two Minute Brother, Spor Klübü, Berlin, DE
The Wrong - New Digital Art Biennial, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK
NO-ISBN, Beirut Art Center, Beirut, LB
*Hopscotch Reading Room, Berlin, DE
32nd Annual Northern National Art Competition, Nicolet College, WI, US

2018

*Universal Capital, Treignac Projet, Treignac FR
TOPO Gallery, Mpls, MN, US
On and On, Beard and Weil Gallery, Norton, MA, US
Journeys Here, Minnesota State Arts Board, St Paul, MN, US
Open Letter to the Invisible Committee, Magasin Général, Tarnac, FR

2017

Culture as Weapon, Studio 369, St Paul, MN, US
*Universal Capital, Traffic Zone Gallery, Mpls, MN, US
*Deep State, Pirsig Projects, Mpls, MN, US

2016  

*Universal Capital, Traffic Zone Gallery, Mpls, MN, US
The Floating Library, Mpls, MN, US
Fifteen Year Anniversary Show, SOO Visual Arts Center, Mpls, MN, US

2015

On & On, Mark Miller Gallery, NYC, US
Art On Air, Instinct Gallery, Mpls, MN, US
*Brunswick Box, Jersey City, New Jersey, US
Austerity, Cowles Center, Mpls, MN, US
Made Here INTERSECTIONS, Mpls, MN, US
Kino Holly*ood, Northern Spark Festival, Mpls, MN, US

Selected Publications

2024 Sutton, Elizabeth, Mapping, Cartography, Surveying as Empowering Practices, Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Visual Culture, vol. 1, NYC, US
2023    ARTMargins, Memory Zero, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, US
2021 JCO, Three Questions with Artist Sean Smuda, International Paneling, Berlin/NYC
2020    Marcos, Imanuel, Unconventional Artist in Berlin, The Berlin Spectator, DE
2019    Gould, Sam, Universal Capital, Last Word Press, Olympia, WA, US
2019    Emergency Index, Vol. Vll, Ugly Duckling Presse, Brooklyn, NY, US
2018    Gould, Sam, Blueprints, Beyond Repair Books, Mpls, MN, US
2017    Rodriguez, Dereck, Our Hands Are Down, Amistad Journal, Howard University Press, Washington D.C., US
2016    Le Fevre, Camille, Sean Smuda: Universal Capital, City Pages, Mpls, MN, US

Collections

Walker Art Center, US
Le Mairie, Tours, FR
Inhotim, BR
Quatorzerohuit, Dakar, SN

Selected Grants and Awards

2022             Neustart Kultur-Stipendium, Kunstfonds, Bonn, DE
2021              Foundation for Contemporary Arts, NYC, US
2019 Adolph Gottlieb Foundation, NY, US
2018              Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, NY, US
2016              Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant, US
2010              Minneapolis Arts Commission Award for Public Art, MN, US

Presentations

2023   w/ARTMargins magazine founding editor Sven Spieker, Chert Lüdde Gallery, Berlin, DE, 08.07
2020   Artist talk, International Network of Performance Art, NYC, US, 12.12
2019    Artist talk and performance, Hopscotch Reading Room, Berlin, DE, 07.01
2017    Artist talk and performance, Traffic Zone Gallery, MPLS, MN, US, 01.20

Related Experience

2022   “Robert Irwin, Light and Space”, video and editing of a month-long timeplase film, Kraftwerk, Berlin, DE
2021   “Goodbye, World”, curated by Raimar Stange and Andreas Templin. video and editing, Bothnian Bay, Lapland, SE 14.02
2020  Artist Talk, International Network of Performance Art, NYC, US, 12.12
2019   Artist Talk and Performance, Hopscotch Reading Room, Berlin, DE 07.01
2017    Artist Talk, Traffic Zone Gallery, MPLS, MN, US, 01.20
2011 - 2014     Cultural Liaison for artist exchanges between Mpls, MN, US and Tours, FR
2007 - 2008     MFA Thesis Advisor, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, US

Collaborative Projects

2018
Universal Capital w/ Davu Seru and Treignac Project. Exhibition and marching band performance. Treignac, FR
Requiem for the Roberts Building w/ Blacki, Davu Seru, Magic Larry’s, Jesse Petersen. Performance and marching band. Minneapolis, MN, US

2009-2011      
Blown Derivatives: an international exchange project of ephemeral/precarious exhibitions with the Iraqi American Reconciliation Project, Fatin Al Jumaily, Ghalib Al Mansoori, Sanjin Cosabic, Margaret Coughlin, Seth Dauphin, James Gladman, Jonathan Field, Ibraheem Hussein, Daniel Kaniess, Janet Lobberecht, Abraham Renko, Anna-Marie Shogren, Ping Wang, and Luke Wilcox. McMurdo Base, Antarctica; Jiangsu, China; Skågstrond, Iceland; Karbala and Najaf, Iraq; Lahore, Pakistan; See La, Tibet.

Curatorial Projects

2022 –   Pirsig Projects, Berlin, DE
2018 Lettre Ouverte à la Commitée Invisible, Magasin Géneral, Tarnac FR
2017 - 2018 Beinnale Be-In-Alley and Pirsig Projects, Mpls, MN, US
2003 - 2014  Shoebox Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, US

Education

2018             Saas-Fee Institute, Berlin, DE
2001-2003   Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Mpls, MN, US
1981-1982     School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, US
1980-1981     St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA, US
1979-1980    Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels, BE
                     Uccle Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels, BE