Marlene Smith
Marlene Smith is a British artist and curator, and one of the founding members of the BLK Art Group. Born in Birmingham, she joined the Blk Art Group in 1982, led the West Midlands Minority Arts Service from 1987-1991 and The Black Art Gallery from 1991-1994.
She was Director of The Public in West Bromwich and UK Research Manager for Black Artists and Modernism, a collaborative research project run by the University of the Arts London and Middlesex University. She set up the Blk Art Group Research Project with former group members, Claudette Johnson and Keith Piper in 2011.
Her solo show, Ah Sugar, opened in August 2024 at Cubitt Gallery, London and toured to the Reid Gallery at Glasgow School of Art. She is currently exhibiting work as part of ‘Connecting Thin Black Lines’ at the ICA London.
Other recent exhibitions include:
- ‘Women in Revolt!’ at Tate Britain
- ‘The More Things Change’ at Wolverhampton Art Gallery
- 'Cut & Mix’ at New Art Exchange, Nottingham
- ‘The Place Is Here: The Work of Black Artists in 1980s Britain’ at Nottingham Contemporary
Her work is in collections at Tate, Sheffield Museums, Wolverhampton Art Gallery and the Government Art Collection.