Dianne Smith, Weaving Legacies Exhibition Brochure

Dianne Smith's "Weaving Legacies October 3, 2025, through November 1, 2025, at New York Artists Equity Gallery.

Weaving Legacies - honors the rich Heritage and enduring legacy of basket weaving within the African Diaspora. This exhibition draws inspiration from the personal history of my mother and her sisters, who, during their childhood in Belize, wove baskets and other items to support their family financially. This traditional craft seeks to celebrate and elevate the stories of women from across the Diaspora, highlighting
their resilience, creativity, and invaluable contributions to their families and communities. The exhibition will feature a curated collection of baskets and other sculptural forms woven from diverse materials like
metal, rope, ribbon, and upcycled materials, blending traditional and contemporary techniques.

1. WEAVING
LEGACIES
DIANNE SMITH

2. Weaving as Metaphor
Ropes, wires, textured metal, flat pieces
of aluminum, threads, ribbons, exquisite touches
of gold and silver, ropes crafted in China, indige -
nous sisal twists; the materiality in Dianne Smith’s
woven pieces weaves the past and the present. A
Bronx native deeply rooted in its Hip Hop culture,
Smith harnesses her creativity to craft contempo -
rary sculptural pieces that resonate with the rich
history of the African Diaspora. In doing so, she
fosters a dialogue that transcends geographical
boundaries and engages with an ongoing trans-
continental narrative.
Inherent in the legacy of the African Dias -
pora is the ability to weave a complex fabric of
identities and Smith does just that: claiming her
weaving inheritance from both sides of the At -
lantic. Twisted plastic yellow wall pieces and wire
sculptures nod to traditions such as Zulu wire bas -
kets, woven commercial ropes echo bold colored
Masai beaded baskets while sisal rope twists are
reminiscent of indigenous Mayan basket weav -
ing in Belize, a strong tradition to this day. Some
works are variations on a theme, part of a series,
reminiscent of musical score, they are a beat and
ask us to rhyme. They are calligraphy in space,
an impulse to both contain and explore. Yet the
tightness of some of the wall pieces evoke fingers
that move with agility and precision; fingers that
are used to weave hair into tight braids and corn -
rows. Twisted woven metal, ribbons tying onto
itself, small hands weaving baskets to make John-
ny cakes for breakfast.
While the woven pieces are in a constant
exploration of the materials, they firmly inscribe
themselves in a contemporary context. The mod -
ernist traditions of Calder or Monk’s iconic Dream
come to mind just as much as the work of contem -
porary Gullah master sweetgrass basket weaver
Corey Alston; or native-American master weaver,
artist Jeremy Frey. One could state that as the
pieces simultaneously leads us to Africa, Belize
and the Bronx, they code switch: post-colonial
resistance to assimilation, integration and erasure
at its best.
The timeless tale of Anansi is quite alive
in the African Diaspora. He is the cosmic weav -
er, symbol of resilience that keeps ties together
across bodies of water, across time and space.
The current resurgence and recognition of this
craft into the contemporary art space perhaps
presents itself as a socio-cultural alternative; a
profound response to the illusion of separation
that permeates our world— a truth understood by
many indigenous cultures in the profound inter -
connectedness that binds all life forms together.
VCC, Harlem, September 2025
WEAVING
LEGACIES
DIANNE SMITH

3. Vladimir Cybil In Conversation with Dianne
In her studio, surrounded by materials in flux,
Dianne reflects on the origins of her weaving
practice.
On beginnings:
“My first experiments weren’t with traditional
weaving at all, dry cleaning hangers became
small sculptures, then paper, rope, and cut-
up clothing followed. I didn’t know formal
weaving techniques, but a memory surfaced
of my Aunt Louise in Belize showing us how to
knot and weave. Even when my mother and
aunts couldn’t recall those details, I felt it must
be something inherent, passed through the
hands. I think of my grandmother kneading
bread, scrubbing laundry, braiding hair, the
wrist and hand movements themselves be-
came my vocabulary.”
On inherited traditions:
“For me, it’s the ‘familiarity of the unfamiliar.’
I don’t claim specific lineages of African or
Mayan weaving, but I trust that knowledge
carried through ancestry reveals itself in my
gestures. So much is passed down through
the hands, whether we consciously name it or
not.”
On training and relinquishing outcome:
“My formal training was in draftsmanship and
painting. I can draw and use all mediums. But
while training focuses on achieving a set result,
a portrait that looks like its subject, I work from
ambiguity and improvisation. I rarely know
what the outcome will be, and I embrace that
uncertainty. When people anticipate an instal -
lation and say, ‘I can’t wait to see what you do,’
my response is, ‘Me too.’ I create alongside
the work, not in control of it.”
On improvisation and hip hop:
“I often use rope, worn fabric, or torn bed -
sheets instead of traditional materials. That
comes from an improvisational ethos, making
something from nothing. Growing up in the
Bronx in the 1970s, hip hop emerged from
precisely those conditions of survival and ne -
cessity. Like jazz, it was about finding a voice,
making a way out of no way. That same spirit
runs through my approach to weaving.”
On community and continuity:
“In my family, weaving was always communal,
a task done together. My installations carry
that forward; they become collective projects
where others participate in tearing and crum -
pling materials. It’s like a weaving circle. For
me, community is about more than economics;
it is about family capital, sustaining one anoth -
er’s well-being. Historically, weaving meant the
community ate, survived, and educated itself.
The act of weaving holds all of that knowledge
of the hand.” Hey Cybil, did I answer the ques -
tions?
IN CONVERSATION: Vladimir Cybil Charlier & Dianne Smith
Dianne Smith as Material for the Arts Artist in Residence at a SoHo
community event hosted by the organization, in 2017.

6. Orí Sorí Ikóré Ifé Títí
Òrìsà OmiOjiji àti
Ìnà Rere Alákor Ayé Lòwó
Ojú Ina

7. Dianne Smith is a multidisciplinary artist with a career spanning more than two decades. She is a recipient of the Nancy
Graves Foundation Award, a New York State Council on the Arts grant, the Lunder Institute Fellowship, and a Fulbright
from the U.S. Consulate General in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Smith served as Director of Public Engagement at the Allen -
town Art Museum. Her work is in the collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Bronx Museum, the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Brodsky Organization, and the Petrucci Family Foundation Collec -
tion of African American Art. She earned her MFA in Creative Practice from the Transart Institute in Berlin, Germany, via
Plymouth University, UK.
Instagram: @iamdiannesmithart
Website: www.diannesmithart.com
Vladimir Cybil Charlier is a New York-based Haitian American multi-disciplinary artist whose work has focused on developing
a language to articulate a diasporic culture within a contemporary context. The search for that language has been the
thread linking her different bodies of work, whether mixed-media paintings, videos, prints, or three-dimensional work.
Charlier has attended art residencies at the Skowhegan School, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Fountainhead Studios,
and, more recently, Brandywine Workshop and The Haystack Mountain School of Craft. Her work has been included at
the Venice Biennial as well as The Cuenca and Panama Biennials, and recent exhibitions include Le Grand Palais in Paris,
Relational Undercurrents at MOLA, Caribbean Crossroad at the Perez Museum, Transmutation of Alchemy at Tiger Strikes
Astroid, and a solo exhibit at The Garner Arts Center.
Ghana Di Strong Ting
EQUITY GALLERY
245 Broome Street, New York, NY 10002
[phone]
[email protected]
Support for WEAVING LEGACIES : DIANNE SMITH is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Cultural Affairs,
New York Artists Equity and The West Harlem Art Fund.
Exhibition curated by Vladimir Cybil Charlier, and catalog designed by iliana emilia Garcia ([email protected])