Sixteen years after her first collaboration with the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies, Kiki Smith returned in 2015 to work on new prints that explore both novel and familiar techniques and imagery. In Esperanza and Good Day she randomly applied holographic paper and mirrored mylar onto multi-plate etchings as a way to explore color and reflection. Smith revisited her longstanding interest in moths and butterflies - classic symbols of fragility and metamorphosis - in Goat Moths a series of six etching and drypoints. Most recently, Smith made five additional intaglio prints at the Neiman Center two of which - Evidence and The Desire - are variable editions with distinct patterns of glossy and reflective papers collaged to their surfaces.  

Tidal, Smith’s first - now iconic - project as a visiting artist at the Neiman Center in 1999, employed photogravure to capture thirteen depictions of the moon set above an undulating ocean in an accordion-fold book. Smith took photographs of the moon at Columbia University’s observatory and the ocean during a late-night visit to Coney Island. Moon Three, a related triptych, was also printed using photogravure to create the sharp contrast between the rich black of space and the glowing moons.