LAKEWOOD, CO.- This fall The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar, in Lakewood, Colorado, will present the United States premiere of an exhibition of works by the international mixed-media artist Melanie Smith. “Melanie Smith: Spiral City/Ciudad Espiral” includes paintings, photography and video pieces, and collaborative works representing Smith’s aesthetic and social investigation of Mexico City, where she has lived and worked since 1989. Smith’s work explores, through a diverse range of media and multiple perspectives on the city, the economic and social patterns of the city and how they translate into artistic forms. “Spiral City/Ciudad Espiral” opens at The Lab at Belmar on September 26, 2007 and will be on view through December 30, 2007. The Lab is the sole U.S. venue for this exhibition that originated at MUCA, Mexico City.

British-born Melanie Smith has spent nearly two decades engaged with an exploration of her adopted hometown of Mexico City, one of the world’s most populous cities. Examining the city from all angles—from the air and from the ground; from the crowded grid of city blocks to the commerce on the street—Smith has created a visual vocabulary that draws from the visual impact of the megalopolis while simultaneously relaying an interest in the history of art and the ways in which “abstract” art relates to the urban environment. A wide range of works exploring these themes will be on view at The Lab, including videos, large-scale paintings, and installation works. Also on view will be several artworks created in collaboration with other artists, including Rafael Ortega and Francis Alÿs.

“Among the many issues Melanie Smith investigates through her work are the moments where abstract art and real life ‘meet’—moments that we also work to explore through our exhibitions and public programs at The Lab” said Adam Lerner, founder and executive director of The Lab. “Though some of her art delves into some very specific issues—such as the social struggles of a city adapting to large-scale growth—there are many universal currents running through her paintings, videos, and installations. We’re delighted to be able to bring this exhibition of Smith’s work to the United States, and look forward to sharing it with visitors to The Lab.”

A central work in “Spiral City and Other Vicarious Pleasures” is the video Spiral City, created in 2002 in collaboration with Rafael Ortega. The video, nearly six minutes in length, features a dynamic view of the city shot from a helicopter—recalling, both with the work’s title and the helicopter cinematography, Robert Smithson’s 1970 film of his landmark earthwork Spiral Jetty. The video builds on earlier works that depict urban moments in detail, taking a more inclusive look at the mass of the city by depicting a seemingly unending accumulation of buildings, streets, factories, and parking lots and establishing the visual patterns of urban living.

An earlier video work, Aerobics Class (1996), similarly explores the rhythms and patterns of 20th century life and culture in Mexico City. The video installation presents, on several monitors, arranged on shelves to mimic a department store display, images of the garish costumes and unrelenting beats of an aerobics class, extremely popular in the city in the 1990s.

Smith’s paintings and photographs embody her dual interests in the city grid and the history of art. The large-scale paintings in the Desolate Landscapes series, some of which will be on view at The Lab, display haunting views of the city based on black and white photographs. With soft focus receding into a complete loss of detail, these works suggest both straight urban photographic documentation and abstract painting. Photographs in the Tianguis Aerial series suggest an overlapping of economic realities and patterns of color, as the colorful, temporary structures housing street markets trace geometric patterns between the gray official architecture of the city grid.

The multi-media installation Jam side up, Jam side down (1992), which was created in collaboration with Francis Alÿs, stems from Smith’s interests in commercialism and consumption in contrast with urbanism, another ongoing theme of her work. For the work, plastic and latex cushions and rings, along with gloves, baby bottles, and other objects hang from tubing, as in a wardrobe or in a butcher’s shop. The title itself alludes to sandwich construction and consumption (offered either “jam side up” or “jam side down”).

“Spiral City/Ciudad Espiral” was curated by Cuauhtémoc Medina, researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas at the National University of Mexico and Associate Curator of Latin American Art Collections at Tate Gallery in London, and the exhibition originated at the University Museum of Sciences and Arts (MUCA) at the National University of Mexico, Mexico City. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with texts by Cuauhtémoc Medina; Essex University art history professor Dawn Ades; Mexican artist Eduardo Abaroa; and English artist David Batchelor.

Melanie Smith - Born in 1965, in Poole, England, Melanie Smith has been living and working in Mexico City since 1989. Her work has recently been exhibited at the Tate Britain and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, as well as O.M.R Gallery in Zurich, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, The Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City, UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.