Plight of Abundance

Plight of Abundance is comprised of works made in the last year by Emily Sullivan Smith and includes screen prints, woodcuts and sculptures. Sullivan Smith’s work focuses on the global debate concerning the planet and the role each of our lives, choices, conveniences and privileges play. Each work investigates the tenuous balance between humans and nature through the perceived abundance of natural resources declining at the hand of human kind or the impact of daily conveniences on nature. Works in the exhibition include, Plastic Island, a 60” x 36” relief printed woodcut, a tongue-in-cheek illustration, which reimagines the possibilities for the large islands of plastics floating in the oceans. New landscapes are imagined resulting from mass hunting of bison in the American West and a life-sized bee hive which slips between simulacra and commentary making visual, the plight of the pollinators.

Emily Sullivan Smith is an Assistant Professor of Foundations and the Foundations Coordinator at the University of Dayton’s Department of Art and Design. Having received an MFA from Kent State in printmaking, her studio practice is interdisciplinary and is constructed from a hybrid of screen-printing, sculpture and digital photography. Her work focuses on issues surrounding the environment, consumerism, and the human propensity toward personalizing their environment. Her most recent exhibitions include; For the Birds, at William Busta Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio, Material + Process at Hedge Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio and upcoming at the Tallahassee International Exhibition at the Florida State University Museum of Fine Art in Tallahassee, Florida.

Exhibition ran Saturday July 11th The Blue House Gallery and Studios  through July 31st

Check out her work here:

http://www.emilysullivansmith.com