Kiki Smith's Magical Art in Florence

Kiki Smith's exhibition at Palazzo Pitti in Florence showcases her shift from militant feminist works to more intimate, poetic pieces. Born in Nuremberg in 1954, Smith emerged in the 1980s with confrontational art addressing AIDS, feminism, and sexual liberation, often using visceral body imagery. Since the late 1990s, her focus has turned to the cosmos, female and animal souls, and a lost primordial harmony. The show features bronze, aluminum, silver, and gold leaf sculptures that are zoomorphic, anthropomorphic, and biomorphic, inspired by everyday life and the mind-body-nature relationship. Tapestries woven on Jacquard looms reference Florentine Renaissance, Pompeian frescoes, Symbolist painting, and medieval bestiaries, blending celestial and feminine realms. Works like 'Earth' (2012) evoke a sense of wonder and a search for spiritual balance. The exhibition runs at Palazzo Pitti, with the article published on Artribune by Niccolò Lucarelli.