Christina Shmigel (b. 1958, NYC) is a contemporary Ukrainian-American artist working in sculptural installation and drawing. As a first-generation American, growing up between cultures and languages, she became an observer of cultural cues. This habit of being informs her artistic practice; as she moves from place to place, she explores how a locality's particular character manifests in its material culture. Combining hand-made objects with unaltered acquired components, employing shifts of scale & view point, the theatrical spaces of her installations are experienced thru slow revelation, in time and thru memory. Shmigel’s work captures those moments when ordinary reality shifts, revealing something intangible beneath its surface. Her installations create a space of playfulness and engagement, an opportunity for re-enchantment with ordinary existence. 

Shmigel studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA 1980), sculpture at Brooklyn College (MFA 1987), metalsmithing at Southern Illinois University- Carbondale (MFA 1995) and received training in blacksmithing at the Penland School of Craft. From 1995-2005, as an Associate Professor of Art, she ran the sculpture program at Webster University in St. Louis, MO. For 13 years, beginning in 2004, Shmigel’s studio practice was based in Shanghai, China. Currently, she maintains studios in St. Louis and in Bakersville, NC.

Shmigel has participated in numerous solo and invitational exhibitions including installations for the Ukrainian Museum in NYC, the Ukrainian Institute for Modern Art in Chicago, the St Louis Art Museum, Laumeier Sculpture Park in St Louis, Duolun Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai, China and at the Penland School of Craft. She is represented by Bruno David Gallery, St Louis, MO.

Images: Mercedes Jelinek