Jeffrey Deitch and Pace Gallery will present Untethered Journey, an exhibition of historical and recent works by Kiki Smith, at Deitch’s gallery at 925 N Orange Drive in Los Angeles from October 30, 2026, through January 23, 2027. Marking Smith’s first solo show in the city in thirty years, the exhibition will provide an overview of her rigorous, provocative, and poetic practice.
Untethered Journey brings together a group of Smith’s sculptures of the body, including iconic early bronze works like Virgin Mary (1994) and Blood Pool (1992) as well as investigations in papier mâché, beeswax, polyester resin, and fiberglass. Unflinchingly transgressive, these works challenge held notions about the depiction of the human form, exposing its inner workings and upending classical postures. Smith often displays these works in unexpected positions; in a series of cast aluminum and bronze sculptures from 2002, titled Moon on Crutches, a single body is suspended amid a tangle of linear structures, while in the seminal 1989 Untitled, exhibited late last year at 125 Newbury in New York, a group of figures sculpted in paper hang from the ceiling between large paper sheets, hand painted in red vermillion ink.
Untethered Journey is the latest collaboration between Jeffrey Deitch and Pace Gallery, who have sustained a cooperative relationship over the years, presenting joint institutional exhibitions and projects in support of their artists. The exhibition is also borne out of the long friendships between Smith, Deitch, and Glimcher. After meeting Smith in 1975, Deitch went on to support the artist-run shop A. More Store, which launched in 1981 under the leadership of Smith, and later included her sculpture Mother/Child (1993)—on view in this presentation—in Aperto ’93 at the 45th Venice Biennale. Glimcher has worked closely with Smith for decades, since Pace began representing her in 1994. This marks Smith’s sixteenth solo exhibition with the gallery.