The Art Museum of Southeast Texas (AMSET) is proud to present Margaret Smithers-Crump: Kinship as it’s spring exhibition on view April 1 through June 18, 2023.

Margaret Smithers-Crump is a Houston-based sculptor, whose work focuses on the vulnerability and interconnectedness of the Earth’s diverse life forms and ecosystems. Smithers-Crump explores natural conditions of development such as birth, maturation, procreation and death, and unnatural conditions caused by human impact such as global warming, pollution and loss of habitat.

Growing up on a tiny island in Canada, she witnessed the transformation of her family’s lake’s crystalline waters changing with obvious signs of pollution. Profoundly saddened, Smithers-Crump developed a passionate regard for the planet and its life forms. As a result, she wanted to find an art material that could conceptually evoke fragility and breakage.

In the late 90s, Smithers-Crump began working with recycled Plexiglas and polycarbonate and found that these substances perform with amazing versatility. She is able to cut this material into hundreds of units that are shaped with heat and are chemically bonded together to create large two- and three-dimensional works for the wall, floor and ceiling. The painted surfaces are translucent and provide possibilities for greater depth and luminosity.

A free Family Arts Day will take place in conjunction with this exhibition on Saturday, May 6, 2023 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. A free Taste of the Arts Lecture with Dr. Randall Terry, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at Lamar University, will take place on Friday, April 21, 2023 at 12:30 p.m.

Join us for the opening reception of Margaret Smithers-Crump: Kinship on Friday, April 14, 2023, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. Drinks and light refreshments will be served, with a brief gallery talk at 7:15 p.m. with the artist. For more information on this exhibition, visit www.amset.org or call (409) 832-3432