Morphologies

Mickey Smith
The Arts House Trust
72 Hillsborough Road, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

5 March - 24 May 2026

Presented in association with Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival Morphologies is a survey by award-winning conceptual artist and photographer Mickey Smith. Showcasing her library-based photographic series and related site-specific installations, these works invite reflection on our evolving relationship with books-as-monuments. How might perceptions of the power of knowledge shift when magazines and periodicals are transformed into colourfully bound yet stoic volumes, and endless rows archived in basement stacks? Smith’s use of scale signals both the authority of publication and the potential absence left behind when materials are removed from circulation—countless subjects have already been retired, with many more to follow. What is the impact when they are eventually removed from shelves—discarded, recycled, repurposed, destroyed, or perhaps replaced by artificial intelligence.

Originally organised by Law Warschaw Gallery at Macalester College in Smith’s hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, Morphologies includes work from the artist’s multi-year visiting residency at the college’s DeWitt Wallace Library.