Sean Smuda is an artist, curator, photographer, and writer, currently without a home due to its loss in a fire on May 27, 2018. He works in a variety of mediums including collage, video, and performance. Recent projects have taken place in Antarctica, Iraq, Wall Street, and the MN State Capitol. In 2011 he was appointed Cultural Liaison to Tours, France by the Minneapolis/Tours Sister City Association. His work is in the permanent collection of the Walker Art Center.

Education

2018             Saas-Fee Summer Institute, Berlin, Germany

2001-2003   MCTC, Mpls, MN

1981-1982     School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1980-1981     St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA

1979-1980    Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium
                     Uccle Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium

Grants/Awards

2018              Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, NY, NY

2016              Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant

2011               Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant

2010              Minneapolis Arts Commission Award for Public Art

2009             Minneapolis MOSAIC Photography Commission

2007             Xcel Energy/Jerome Foundation Project Grant with Obsidian Arts, Minneapolis, MN

Selected Exhibitions (*solo show)
 

2018

*Universal Capital, Treignac and Tarnac, France
TOPO Gallery, Mpls, MN
On and On, Beard and Weil Gallery, Norton, MA
Immigration, Minnesota State Arts Board, St Paul, MN

2017

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

2016  

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

2015

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

2014   

SGC International Print Conference, San Francisco, CA
We Are Water, the Kinship of Rivers Project, The Soap Factory, Mpls, MN
Francesca Anderson Gallery, Lexington, MA
*The Minneapolis Club, Mpls, MN.

2013   

North American Print Biennial, Boston University, Massachusetts, juried by Dennis Michael Jon, Associate Curator: Prints and Drawings, Mia, MN
Collect Call, SOO Visual Arts Center, Mpls, MN. Collection of Herman Milligan.
North of the 45th Parallel, DeVos Museum, Northern Michigan University, juried by Mason Riddle
*The Disappearance of Mr. Frost, Smart Set Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2012

*OZ’Arts Galerie, Tours, France. Curated by Joris Drylewicz
*Onladejavu Galerie, Nîmes, France
It’s A Small, Small World, Family Business Gallery, NY, NY
The Critics' Show, Hopkins Center for the Arts, MN
Speedboat Gallery: A Punker’s Revenge, CO Exhibitions, Mpls, MN

2011   

Governor’s Island Art Fair, NY, NY
Nuclear Unfair, Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin, Germany
Navigating the Aftermath, curated by Tricia Khouterestsky, MN
Kinship of Rivers Project, The Soap Factory, Mpls, MN
801 Lofts, 4 Artists, Mpls, MN
Get Lucky!, SOO Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN
 

Collaborative Projects

2018
Capital Funeral, Treignac and Tarnac France with Davu Seru and No Territory Band.

2009-2011      
Blown Derivatives: an international exchange project organized in collaboration with the Iraqi American Reconciliation Project and artists: Fatin Al Jumaily, Ghalib Al Mansoori, Margaret Coughlin, Seth Dauphin, James Gladman, Jonathan Field, Ibraheem Hussein, Daniel Kaniess, Janet Lobberecht, Abraham Renko, Anna-Marie Shogren, Ping Wang, and Luke Wilcox.

2006 – 2007
Segrelicious, with Obsidian Arts, Mpls, MN

Commissions

2009   
Minneapolis MOSAIC Photography Commission: Hopes and Dreams, twenty 36” x 24” photographs, City Center, Mayor's Office, Minneapolis, MN

Collections

The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Le Mairie, Tours, France
Inhotim, Brazil

Related Experience

2011 - 2014     Cultural Liaison to Tours, France. Mpls/Tours Sister City Association, United States and France

Curatorial Projects

2017 – . . .      Pirsig Projects, Mpls, MN > Berlin Germany

2003 - 2014  Shoebox Gallery, Minneapolis, MN