Quick Facts
Biography
Janice Smith is a furniture maker and educator based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Early life and education
Smith took a women's wood shop class in high school and became hooked on woodworking. She attended Virginia Commonwealth University and studied under furniture maker Alphonse Mattia. She later attended the Rhode Island School of Design, studying furniture making under Tage Frid. Smith is a member of the Furniture Society and was an early artist involved with American Studio Furniture.
Career
Artist and furniture maker
After graduating college in 1981 she worked for a small furniture maker and then a Rhode Island boat builder. Eventually she started her own furniture making business creating custom furniture. Today she continues to run a business, working alongside her husband Reuben Wade to design and build interiors and commercial remodeling.
In her work, Smith uses sculptural forms and aims to engage the viewer in all three dimensions, creating work that is both functional and exciting. Her work is dynamic, often geometric and angular or with sweeping lines and curves. In her furniture work, Smith uses Italian-made composite veneered plywood. To create thickness and dimension in her work, she often uses torsion boxes - hollow structures with a frame-like core and a plywood "skin", veneered to look solid. The financial freedom from teaching at the University of Kansas allowed her to explore new directions with her work.
Smith's work has been featured in Wexler Gallery in Philadelphia and galleries and exhibitions across the country.
Educator
Smith taught industrial and interior design full-time at the University of Kansas from 1992 - 1998. She currently teaches part-time at Bucks County Community College, Moore College of Art and Design, and Drexel University. She also teaches carpentry to Philadelphia youth through the Mural Arts' Restorative Justice program.
At the American Craft Council conference held in Philadelphia in 2019, Smith spoke on a panel about women in woodworking hosted by Jennifer-Navva Milliken alongside woodworkers Laura Mays, Meg Bye, Emily Bunker, Folayemi Wilson, and Sarah Marriage of A Workshop of Our Own.
