Berkeley artist Sally Kristina Smith presents “Calorie Project” at 60SIX, her first solo show with the gallery. In this series of abstract black and white drawings Smith burns the material she is drawing to physically create the charcoal she uses to draw the ephemeral subject or object. Her drawing process is concerned with mark making guided by the physicality of the substance avoiding obvious reference to the object’s appearance. Each piece is labeled with the grams and calories burned to create it.
Merriam-webster defines “alchemy” in three ways 1: a medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy aiming to achieve the transmutation of the base metals into gold, the discovery of a universal cure for disease, and the discovery of a means of indefinitely prolonging life 2: a power or process that changes or transforms something in a mysterious or impressive way and 3: an inexplicable or mysterious transmuting.
Smith’s work delivers an unusual alchemy. A work called “Burn Rate” is created from burned money where investors provided dollar bills while buying shares in the project. In “Moscow Bunnies” the artist concocts a mix of burned “The Art of the Deal” pages, mixed with Playboy magazines and Aunt Jemima syrup. In “Hamburger” pieces of charred meat are dragged off the fire and rubbed on the surface of the paper. Some works humorously ponder our culture’s obsessions, while implying a need for transformation. All works embody a chemical alchemy and arrive within a flurry of marks made from substances never before created.
Smith received her B.A. in music and human biology from Stanford University and earned a law degree from the University of Utah. She studied drawing and painting at the Cambridge Center Studio School in Massachusetts. Smith's work can be found in art collections worldwide including the Hanjin Shipping Company, Seoul, Korea, and private collections in Berlin, Cologne, Zurich, Boston, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
