Kiki Smith Sculptures
Kiki Smith is one of the most influential and versatile artists of contemporary art, renowned for her explorations of the human body, nature, mythology, and the spiritual realm. While her practice spans printmaking, drawing, photography, and installation, it is her sculptures that have captivated audiences worldwide for their emotional intensity, tactile beauty, and deep symbolism.
Over the course of more than four decades, Smith has created works that challenge conventional representations of women, explore the connection between humanity and the natural world, and invite viewers to reflect on life’s most universal themes, birth, death, transformation, and the fragility of existence.
This comprehensive guide explores her most famous sculptures, what she is known for, how she creates her pieces, their value, and where you can see them today.
Born in 1954 in Nuremberg, Germany, and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, Kiki Smith grew up surrounded by creativity. Her father, Tony Smith, was a well-known minimalist sculptor and architect, while her mother, Jane Lawrence Smith, was an opera singer and actress. This rich artistic environment fostered Smith’s interest in exploring the physical and metaphysical through art.
Kiki Smith is best known for:
Figurative sculpture exploring the human body, often fragmented, transparent, or anatomically revealing.
Themes of mortality, spirituality, and transformation rooted in mythology, folklore, and biblical narratives.
Integration of nature, animals, plants, and celestial bodies, into human narratives.
Use of unconventional materials such as beeswax, paper, glass, bronze, plaster, and even intestines or hair in earlier works.
Feminist and body-positive perspectives challenging historical representations of women in art.
Her sculptures often provoke a visceral response, merging beauty with vulnerability. Smith once remarked, “My work is about storytelling. I tell stories about people, animals, the living and the dead.”
Kiki Smith’s Most Famous Sculptures
Smith has produced an extensive range of works, several sculptures have emerged as her most iconic, frequently exhibited and discussed in both academic and public contexts.
One of her most haunting early works, Untitled is a life-sized sculpture of a naked man and woman standing apart, both with bodily fluids, blood, urine, milk, represented in resin streams running down their bodies. Crafted from beeswax and resin, the figures appear both real and ghostly, their skin translucent and their humanity laid bare.
Why it’s famous:
It broke taboos around depicting the human body’s functions in fine art, challenging societal discomfort with physical vulnerability.
This bronze sculpture shows a woman stepping gracefully out of the stomach of a life-sized wolf. It is an inversion of the Little Red Riding Hood tale, here, the woman emerges triumphant and reborn, not consumed.
Why it’s famous:
Rapture embodies themes of empowerment, survival, and transformation, offering a feminist reimagining of a classic fairy tale.
Lilith depicts the mythological figure, sometimes seen as Adam’s first wife in Jewish folklore, crouched upside down on a wall, staring fiercely at viewers. Made from fiberglass and covered with glass beads for skin texture, the sculpture blends danger and seduction.
Why it’s famous:
Its positioning, defying gravity, creates an unsettling, predatory presence, subverting the passive female nude tradition in Western art.
In this bronze sculpture, a woman reclines on the back of a large deer while giving birth to a deer calf. It blends human and animal worlds in a moment of mutual creation.
Why it’s famous:
It celebrates the interconnectedness of all living beings and the cyclical nature of life.
Smith’s version of Mary Magdalene shows the biblical figure unclothed but partially covered in what appears to be rough, matted hair. She stands barefoot and humble, embodying penitence and humanity.
Why it’s famous:
It humanizes a figure often idealized or vilified, emphasizing vulnerability and bodily reality over divine perfection.
A small but delicate work, Singer features a bird in mid-song, crafted in fine detail. While modest in size, it resonates with Smith’s recurring themes of nature and voice.
Why it’s famous:
It captures a moment of pure expression and reminds viewers of the subtle power of small life forms.
Kiki Smith’s process is both experimental and steeped in craftsmanship. She works in a variety of materials and scales, often allowing the properties of a medium to shape the final work.
Smith’s sculptures have been made from:
Beeswax and resin – used in early works for lifelike translucency.
Bronze – for durability and timelessness.
Glass – for fragility and transparency.
Plaster and papier-mâché – for lightweight forms and experimental surfaces.
Found objects and natural materials – to connect with organic themes.
She often starts with hand modeling in clay or wax, then casts the form in bronze or resin. In some cases, she uses lost-wax casting, a traditional method where a wax model is encased in a mold, melted away, and replaced with molten metal.
Drawing is central to her process. Smith frequently creates sketches and prints before producing a sculpture. These works on paper help her visualize form, emotion, and texture.
Her sculptures often bear signs of handwork, fingerprints, tool marks, maintaining a sense of intimacy. She has said that making art is a physical dialogue between herself and the materials.
Smith’s sculptures often evolve intuitively, responding to stories, personal experiences, or universal archetypes. She avoids over-planning, allowing symbolism to emerge naturally.
The value of Kiki Smith’s sculptures varies widely depending on size, material, rarity, and provenance.
Small bronze sculptures: Often range from $30,000 to $80,000 at auction.
Medium-scale works: Can fetch $100,000 to $250,000.
Major large-scale sculptures: Have sold for $400,000 to over $500,000.
Unique or iconic works: In museum-quality categories, prices can exceed $1 million in private sales.
Auction records show her work is in high demand internationally. For instance, her sculpture Lilith (editions in different collections) is among her most sought-after pieces, while her unique early works in wax are prized for their rarity.
Kiki Smith’s sculptures are held in major museums, public spaces, and private collections worldwide.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York – Holds several of her works, including prints and sculptures.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York – Has exhibited her work extensively.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York – Includes Lilith and other key sculptures.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. – Houses several pieces from her mid-career.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) – Features her sculptures in thematic exhibitions.
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis – Has a strong collection of her works.
“Rest Upon” (2009) – A bronze female figure resting in a tree, installed in public spaces in New York.
“Chorus” (2012) – Bronze birds in permanent outdoor display in several U.S. cities.
Stained glass windows – While not sculptures, her glasswork can be seen at Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.
Her sculptures have been exhibited and collected by:
Tate Modern, London
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Smith’s approach to sculpture has reshaped the boundaries of contemporary figurative art. She bridges:
The personal and universal – blending intimate human experience with mythic narratives.
The beautiful and the grotesque – showing that vulnerability can be powerful.
Craft and concept – demonstrating mastery of materials without losing emotional depth.
Her feminist lens has inspired younger artists to reclaim depictions of the body on their own terms. Moreover, her engagement with nature and spirituality resonates strongly in today’s art world, where ecological and existential themes are increasingly central.
Kiki Smith’s sculptures remain powerful because they speak directly to our shared humanity. Whether it’s the mythical Lilith crouched like a watchful animal, the victorious woman emerging from a wolf in Rapture, or the tender merging of species in Born, her works offer multiple points of entry, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual.
Smith has an uncanny ability to make sculptures that feel ancient yet contemporary, sacred yet familiar. This duality ensures her work remains relevant across generations and cultural contexts.
Kiki Smith’s sculptures are more than objects; they are vessels for stories, stories of bodies, creatures, and cosmic forces intertwined. She is an artist who invites us to look closely at life’s raw materials, flesh, fur, feathers, bone, and see the divine connections within them.
From her most famous works like Lilith, Rapture, and Born, to her experimental use of wax, bronze, and glass, Smith’s art offers a profound meditation on what it means to be human in relation to the animal and spiritual worlds.
Her pieces command high values at auction, but their true worth lies in their ability to provoke thought, stir emotion, and connect us to something timeless. Whether encountered in a museum like MoMA, in a public square, or in a sacred space, Kiki Smith’s sculptures are unforgettable experiences in form, story, and soul.
Titian’s La Bella: A Guide to History, Meaning and Controversy Among the many masterpieces created…
Titian’s Portrait of Isabella d’Este: A Guide for Antique Art Lovers Among Renaissance portraits, few…
Madonna of the Yarnwinder: A Guide to Leonardo da Vinci’s Enigmatic Masterpiece Few works in…
Live Like Marie Antoinette: 10 Modern Luxury Items That Exude Royal Elegance Marie Antoinette remains…
Portrait of a Lady: A Mini Guide for Antique Art Collectors Rogier van der Weyden,…
Gerard David: A Guide for Art Lovers of Antique Paintings Among the great names of Early…