Nyugen E. Smith

Nyugen E. Smith is a first-generation Caribbean-American interdisciplinary artist and lecturer of interdisciplinary art in the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. Born to Haitian, Trinidadian, and Tobagonian heritage, he is based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and explores themes related to the African diaspora through various artistic mediums.

His academic background includes a BA in Fine Art from Seton Hall University and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2016). Smith has presented his work at prestigious institutions such as the Museum of Latin American Art, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, Newark Museum, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Smith's research and artistic practice focus on historical and present-day conditions of Black African descendants in the diaspora. His primary concerns include trauma, spiritual practices, language, violence, memory, architecture, landscape, and climate change. He examines the legacy of European colonial rule, imperialist practices of oppression, and intergenerational trauma, with particular interest in ritual and sacred practices rooted in African spiritual systems as coping mechanisms and tools for collective empowerment.

His artistic output includes performance, found object sculpture, mixed media drawing, painting, video, photography, and writing. Notable projects include the Bundlehouse series, which explores climate change, migration patterns, and resource extraction impacts on communities of color, and The Guard, a collaborative intervention with the Barbados Museum and Historical Society.

• Leonore Annenberg Performing and Visual Arts Fund
• Franklin Furnace Fund
• Dr. Doris Derby Award
• Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant
• Creative Capital award
• New Jersey State Council on the Arts grant

Smith has conducted public programs, visiting artist lectures, and panel discussions at institutions including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He has also participated in residencies such as the Wassaic Project and Indigo Arts Alliance.