My recent paintings and performances engage the image as an extension of biological and technological imbalances and my complicit role in their function. Dragged through streets and washed in waters between Berlin and Dakar, the paintings accrue material and history. Hung in public spaces to provoke conversation, they question the design and function of society with and against nature. Other projects include re-writing colonialist cosmologies, performance rooted in Contact Improvisation dance, experimental sound, animation, photography, and video. As a curator I have run Pirsig Projects, 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, my work has been at Schlossmuseum Linz, Austria and Partcours, Dakar, Senegal. I attended l’Académie Royale des Beaux Art, Brussels; the Boston Museum School; and the Sass-Fee Institute, Berlin. The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN has my work in its collection and also the Allard Pierson museum in Amsterdam, amongst others.

Sean Smuda

Born Minneapolis, Minnesota
Lives and works in Berlin, Dakar, Mpls

Selected Exhibitions (*solo show)

2025
The Turning of the Tide, St. Clement’s Art Centre, Ipswich, UK
Divided Planet (in conversation with Ruth Wolf - Rehfeld), Chert Lüdde Galerie, Berlin, DE
Kunststation Kleinsassen, Hofbieber-Kleinsassen, DE

2024
From Power Animal to Fear Animal, the Cultural History of Wolves. Curated by Mona Horncastle, Schlossmuseum, Linz, AT
Def Li War, Partcours 12, Kenu Lab’Oratoire/Chez-Toi Design, Dakar, SN
Reclaim Reality, Rosalux, Berlin, DE

2023
Borrow No Sorrow, Artothek, Berlin, DE
Peter Edel Haus, Berlin, DE
Dialoge, Milchhof Pavillon, Berlin, DE

2022
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
In Isolation Together, ArtCore Gallery, UK

Selected Publications
2026 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
2020    Marcos, Imanuel, Unconventional Artist in Berlin, The Berlin Spectator, DE

Collections
Walker Art Center, US
Le Mairie, Tours, FR
Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam, NL

Selected Grants and Awards
2026 Ifa  Künstlerkontakte Programme, Stuttgart, DE
2022             Neustart Kultur-Stipendium, Kunstfonds, Bonn, DE
2021              Foundation for Contemporary Arts, NYC, 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

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
2011 – 14       Cultural Liaison, MPLS, MN, US > Tours, FR

Collaborative Projects
2018
Universal Capital, exhibition and marching band performance w/ Davu Seru and Treignac Project, FR
Requiem for the Roberts Building, performance and marching band. Minneapolis, MN, US

2009-2011      
Blown Derivatives, exhibitions with the Iraqi American Reconciliation Project at: McMurdo Base, Antarctica; Jiangsu, China; Skågstrond, Iceland; Karbala and Najaf, Iraq; Lahore, Pakistan; See La, Tibet.

Curatorial Projects
2022 –25 Pirsig Projects, Berlin, DE
2018 Lettre Ouverte à la Commitée Invisible, Magasin Géneral, Tarnac FR
2017 –18 Beinnale Be-In-Alley and Pirsig Projects, Mpls, MN, US
2003 –14  Shoebox Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, US

Education
2018             Saas-Fee Institute, Berlin, DE
2001 –03   Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Mpls, MN, US
1981 – 82     School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, US
1980 –81     St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA, US
1979 –80    Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels, BE
                     Uccle Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels, BE