Shelley Smith is a contemporary Southern artist and arts organizer creating neomythical imagery that connects viewers to alternative concepts of landscape. Works on cloth serve as the foundation of her practice, which overlaps contemporary digital technologies with ancient techniques of hand embroidery and fabric manipulation. Her work explores the tension, beauty, expansiveness, and neutrality of both life and death as offered by nature, and reminds us that we are a part of it, always. Through these pieces, the viewer is offered glimpses of far away places that may be spaces within us, perhaps someone’s memory, or a moment that has not yet arrived. A reflection on cycles of a past and future that are simultaneously both created and lost. 

Since 2016, Shelley has advocated for her local art community through her work at Anchorlight and with the Brightwork Foundation in Raleigh NC, where she is the Founding Director of both. Smith holds a Master of Art and Design with a concentration in Fibers and Surface Design from North Carolina State University (2016), and has exhibited and participated in residencies in various spaces throughout the US. Her most recent solo exhibition, Time Isn’t After Us, at Ortega y Gasset Projects in Brooklyn NY, was named a “Must See” by ArtForum in 2024. 

She is currently based in both central North Carolina and central New York. Photo credit: Jillian Clark.