Sable Elyse Smith Brings 'Clockwork' to The FLAG Art Foundation
New and recent works that examine the systems of power that shape everyday life.
Summary
Sable Elyse Smith’s Clockwork brings sculpture, video, neon and photography to The FLAG Art Foundation.
The exhibition examines policing, incarceration, media and the systems shaping everyday life.
Clockwork runs from September 24, 2026 through February 13, 2027.
Sable Elyse Smith’s Clockwork is heading to The FLAG Art Foundation this fall, following its presentation at The Contemporary Austin. Opening September 24, the exhibition brings together new and recent sculpture, video, neon and photography by the 2026 recipient of the Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize.
For its New York presentation, FLAG expands the show’s cinematic qualities into an immersive, stage-like environment. Across the exhibition, Smith looks closely at the systems that shape everyday life, particularly policing, incarceration, entertainment and language, and how those forces often overlap.
Two video installations anchor the show. ”LAUGH TRACK, OR WHO’S THAT PEEKING IN MY WINDOW” (2021) appears alongside ”skin suit” (2026), a new work created for the Prize. Mixing found and original footage, both videos borrow from police chase and bodycam imagery popularized by reality television, shifting between suspense, humor and discomfort to expose the biases built into those images.
Smith’s sculptures similarly transform familiar objects into something harder to read. Prison waiting-room stools are reworked into star-like forms resembling children’s jacks, while others extend from the wall in cruciform shapes, blurring associations of punishment, play and belief.
Her neon works turn language into another site of tension, borrowing the visual language of commercial and institutional signage to explore how words can reinforce prejudice, but also be redirected toward something more freeing.
Clockwork will be on view at The FLAG Art Foundation from September 24, 2026 through February 13, 2027.
The FLAG Art Foundation
545 W 25th St 9th Floor
New York, NY 10001
