Biography

Mina Smart is a boundary pushing photographer exploring gender, identity, sexuality, and how we are products of place. Her practice integrates self-reflection with portraiture and studies of trans identity, bringing questions of social acceptability and the experience of being perceived to the forefront of her work. Her work confronts her own identity by using self portraiture and analog photography as her visual platform.

An emerging artist, Mina is an exciting new voice in the formal art world whose work confronts the viewer with the ways in which we are all complicit in the violence of perception. For example, trans women’s desire is considered perverse, while cis women’s desire is considered non-threatening. Similarly, trans people are by default considered objects of sensationalism rather than subjects with their own knowledge and point of view. Mina’s photography forces the viewer to confront the unconscious process of objectification through surrealist documentary photography, opening a space for the voyeur to reflect.

Her creative pursuits include a fashion company with her partner: House of Etiquette. She and her partner’s work has been featured on screen (American Gods, various music videos), in Vogue, and on celebrities (Lady Gaga, AllieX). Mina is also an occasional burlesque performer. She uses comedic burlesque as an alternative outlet to explore gender and aesthetic. Lastly, Mina has also been involved in small videography projects making music videos for local artists.