In her first major solo presentation in South Florida, Smita Sen offers insight into the artist’s holistic approach to the body and its representation overtime. The exhibition, Embodied, is anchored by a stage that has been activated by the artist prior to the opening and will serve as the site for two additional performances in the gallery.

In MOCA’s first major in-gallery performance exploration in over a decade, the installation invites the viewer to consider the cycle of a space—when it is active with the artist’s presence and when the work is inactive. In this way, the configuration of the space mirrors Sen’s practice, which examines the body’s interiority and its physical capacity for grief and rest.

The exhibition presents a multidisciplinary conversation, including and beginning with a series of intimate works on paper from the Geology of Longing series that explore the artist’s posthumous collaboration with her father’s geological research materials. The show also features large-scale prints of Sen’s body movement in flour in The Body Drawings series and in the premiere of Grief Tectonics, a dance film shot in Sharjah investigating how one can begin to grapple with the impact of loss over time. The film locations range from hyperlocal familiar sites to distant spaces abroad with deep personal meaning to the artist. Rich landscapes, from arid deserts to mangrove waterways, provide escapist platforms for deeper investigations of the body, time, ritual, and memory.

Together, the works in Embodied create an environment for contemplation. Sen grounds the viewer in both the past and present as she explores fleeting and permanent concepts and emotions occupying the mental and physical planes.

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About the artist

Smita Sen (b.1994) is an artist working with sculpture, dance-based performance, and advanced technology to research how the body internalizes its environment and significant life events. Sen has had solo exhibitions at Recess (2021), the Brooklyn Public Library (2022), and Drew University (2023). Her work has been performed and exhibited at venues around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Frost Art Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park, the New World Center, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the Knockdown Center, and Anthology Film Archives, among others. Sen’s artwork and research has been supported by institutions including NEW INC, the New Museum’s incubator; Recess; Oolite Arts; the Bakehouse Arts Complex; and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs.  She is a recipient of the Dance Miami Choreographers award (2023), the Oolite Ellies Creator Award (2022), and the Instigator Fellowship from NYU ITP Camp (2018). An educator, Sen believes in the power of a collaborative classroom and, from 2019 to 2022, was teaching and designing the Emerging Media program at Choate Rosemary Hall. She currently teaches at the Parsons School of Design, The New School, while leading Miami-based arts education nonprofit, the Manipura Care Network. Sen is a graduate of Columbia University (2016).

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Artist photo: Pedro Wazzan

Installation photos: Zachary Balber