Erin Smith (b.1980)  was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 2003 she received her BFA in Product Design from Parsons School of Design and an MFA in ceramics from NYS College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2021. Erin’s experiences in the field of product design, interior design and as a small business owner all feed into her current ceramic practice.

Exhibitions include Walker Art Center and Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN, Concordia University, St. Paul, MN, Rochester Art Center, Rochester, MN, Cooler Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, and the Center for Contemporary Crafts, Houston, TX.

                                                          

I explore the translations that occur through process and creation, my practice is focussed on the murky spaces that are a product of these translations. Using both traditional building techniques and technology I explore how an object transforms in both its physicality and meaning through process and reinterpretation. Technologies such as scanning and 3D printing allow me to focus on the moments where the physical is translated to digital and vice versa. A 3D scan may fail to capture accurately or a printer may
generate support, these discrepancies of our current capabilities become generative of new form. This is where I find my work, navigating the edges of destruction and construction, ideas that morph through translation. I embrace and utilize these digital shortcomings as a marking of time within culture and my own art practice.