Sharl G. Smith  “Woven Steel” June 6 – 28, 2024

In our middle gallery for the month of June we are excited to introduce the sculpture of Waterloo, ON artist Sharl G. Smith.  Informed by her architectural background and her training in a Zen Buddhist design/build firm in California, her large-scale steel sculptures are comprised of woven stainless steel “beads” with industrial steel cables serving as thread.  The organic sculptures push traditional beadwork to a new realm, where the combination of spheres using a tension based network explores themes of social systems, emotions, nature and the spaces between.

Sharl G. Smith is an artist based out of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Through a process called bead-stitching, she produces each piece by hand-stitching glass beads together, one bead at a time. Sharl’s art practice is informed by her architectural background and especially her training in a Zen Buddhist design/build firm in California which specialized in hand-crafted architecture through Japanese Joinery. Her time there has left a lasting impression on her and has instilled a deep reverence for craftsmanship, minimalism and the ‘process as practice’.

Sharl was born and raised in Jamaica, W.I. She moved to New York City in 1998 to attend university where she obtained a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 2003. Sharl continued to live in various parts of the US, working as a designer and architectural professional for 12 years before moving to Canada. She has been working as a full-time artist since 2015.

She is currently one of the 2024 AGO X RBC Artists in Residence.

Her steel sculpture “Embrace II” was recently acquired by the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery.