Kiki Smith (born January 18, 1954) is a German-born American artist[1] whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration.

[4] Although her work takes a very different form than that of her parents, early exposure to her father's process of making geometric sculptures allowed her to experience Modernism's formal craftsmanship firsthand.

Her childhood experience in the Catholic Church, combined with a fascination for the human body, shaped her artwork conceptually.

She has gone on to create works that explore a wide range of human organs; including sculptures of hearts, lungs, stomach, liver and spleen.

[10] In 1984 Smith finished a definitively unfinished feminist no wave super8 film, begun in 1981, entitled Cave Girls.

Mary Magdelene (1994), a sculpture made of silicon bronze and forged steel, is an example of Smith's non-traditional use of the female nude.

Lodestar, Smith's 2010 installation at the Pace Gallery, was an exhibition of free-standing stained glass works painted with life-size figures.

After five years of development, Smith's first permanent outdoor sculpture was installed in 1998 on the campus of the University of California, San Diego.

[20] In 2019, Smith conceived Memory, a site specific installation for the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art on the Greek island of Hydra.

[26] Smith was an active member of Collaborative Projects and ABC No Rio; participating in many Potato Wolf broadcasts and the Cardboard Air Band.

Later she collaborated with poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge to produce Endocrinology (1997), and Concordance (2006), and with author Lynne Tillman to create Madame Realism (1984).

[41] Also in London in 2018, an exhibition of Smith's tapestries, sculpture and works on paper was presented at the Timothy Taylor (gallery) from September 13 – October 27.

[43] In 2019, the Deste Foundation's Project Space at the Slaughterhouse on Hydra island featured Memory, a site specific exhibition.

[44] In 2019 The 11 Conti – Monnaie de Paris presented the first solo show of Smith by a French public institution.

[51] After being chosen speaker for the annual Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Lecture Series in Contemporary Sculpture and Criticism in 2013, Smith became the artist-in-residence for the University of North Texas Institute for the Advancement of the Arts in the 2013–14 academic year.