Amber Smith is an artist, curator, producer and writer working within the sphere of objects, thing theory and collection practices. They are interested in how these operate as a counter-practice to - or a complimentary practice of - digital and new media streams.
Amber has worked on projects with the Victorian College of the Arts, Public Art Commission x Geelong Advertiser, Midsumma Festival, Port Fairy Folk Festival, Deakin University, Somebody’s Daughter Theatre Company, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Headspace, Art Gusto, Geelong After Dark, Geelong City Council, Geelong Arts Centre and Geelong Gallery, along with being a founding member of The Good Excuse Guild and Studio 112 in Geelong. They’ve been a finalist in the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Prize (2019) and have exhibited across Melbourne at Montsalvat, Craft Victoria, Deakin Art Gallery, Allpress Studios, Fawn Gallery, Noir Darkroom, Lovers and BSG, and internationally in Bogotá, Colombia. Amber created the female and non-binary led and devised symposia and exhibition Energetical and the Brackets Art Prize in regional Victoria. Amber Smith has just released their first
self-published work Social Envelopes and Umbilical Blemishes, a book that accompanies their latest work in development Constellations.
Amber Smith's practice manifests in the physical - through assemblage, abstract workings of objects, archive systems, unique and abstract typological arrangements, performative actions and installations, and the written - through collecting, compiling and assembling words. This writing component acts as a bolster and parallel; the notion of non-linear, adjacent and lateral narratives are perpetuated in much the same manner as the physical practice manifests. Meaning, association and the conceptual ideas which tether the importance of objects to individuals, communities and societies is maintained through this written and spoken word.
Amber Smith holds a PhD from Deakin University in the School of Communication and Creative Arts. They also hold a Bachelor of Design Arts (Visual Arts) from the Australian Academy of Design and a First-Class Honours Degree in Creative Arts at Deakin University. Amber is the Curator at Platform Arts and an academic at Lasalle College International, Melbourne (LCIM) and Deakin University.
Amber lives, works and learns on the unceded land of the Wadawurrung (in Djilang) and Wurundjeri (in Naarm) people of the Kulin nation. They recognise their language, art and culture, and acknowledge their people as the first artists and custodians of this land. They recognise their ongoing commitment to, and care of, the skies, lands and waterways of this continent and acknowledge that they are just a visitor here. They pay their respects to all First Nations people and their Elders, past, present and emerging.
