Dark to Light - The Art of Lucy Kreisler Smith


EDITED TO ADD:  Extended!! Through May 11!

Democracy dies in darkness, and it's more important right now than ever in my lifetime to hold up the light.

Lucy Kreisler Smith was a force. Born Jewish in Krakow in 1933, she had just started school when the Nazis invaded. Her childhood was spent staying one step ahead of death — escaping the ghetto, assuming a Catholic identity, constantly on the move and in hiding, amazingly both she and her mother surviving. Post-war she fled the Communists, moved to Paris with no money, and eventually married an American man. One baby and a divorce later, she settled in Saint Paul as a single mother and immigrant, continuing her life as a painter, writer, teacher, and social justice activist. Lucy passed on in July, 2022.

Her art is a testament to how we all survive and move on.

Few her paintings directly address the Holocaust. Instead, they consider everyday life, but a life inherently changed by emerging from the darkness — yet with that undercurrent ever-present. The art is gritty, and yet somehow affirming. It's the story that is somehow deeper than the Holocaust story that we all think we know. It's how we learn and survive.

Dan Smith, her only son, has assembled this major retrospective of her work not just as a testimony to her legacy, but even more so as an important touchpoint in this moment in history. It's up to us as to what happens next.

Opens April 15 and runs through the 26th, from 3:00-7:30 daily (closed Mondays) at the former FilmNorth space — 550 Vandalia, Suite 120. Free, open to the public, accessible, important.

Go experience it and then tell me what you're doing next. It's a voice worth hearing.


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