Janice Smith

Smith took a women's wood shop class in high school and became hooked on woodworking.[2] 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.[1][3] Smith is a member of the Furniture Society and was an early artist involved with the American studio furniture movement.[4]

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.[2]

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.[2] 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.[2] The financial freedom from teaching at the University of Kansas allowed her to explore new directions with her work.[2]

Smith's work has been featured in Wexler Gallery in Philadelphia and galleries and exhibitions across the country.[2][5]

Smith taught industrial and interior design full-time at the University of Kansas from 1992 to 1998.[6][3] She has taught part-time at Bucks County Community College, Moore College of Art and Design, and Drexel University.[1][7] She also has taught carpentry to Philadelphia youth through the Mural Arts' Restorative Justice program.[8]

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, Fo Wilson (also known as Folayemi Wilson), and Sarah Marriage of A Workshop of Our Own.