Artist Shinique Smith Presents Gateway, a multisensory work Inspired By Lincoln
Corey Damen Jenkins, Tamara Warren, Shinique Smith, and Ryan Niemic.
Gateway is a response to Violet Cashmere, a Lincoln Digital Scent
Lincoln and LeCar hosted the second installation of the Lincoln x Le Car Design Talks series in late October in New York City. The Design Talks explore the common threads that connect design across discipline. The program “Multisensory Approaches to Art and Design” featured Gateway, a new work by Shinique Smith, an interpretation of Violet Cashmere, a Lincoln Digital Scent available in the Lincoln Navigator. Smith joined Ryan Niemeic, Lincoln Interior Design Chief, and Corey Damen Jenkins, Interior Designer and Author in conversation with Tamara Warren, Le Car CEO and Founder. Violet cashmere blotters circulated throughout the room, setting the tone for the conversation about how designers investigate third spaces by engaging senses.
The conversation explored the way designers and artists create, and how their intentions evoke responses in the audiences that experience their work. Panelists Smith, Jenkins, and Niemeic explored shared synergies that exist in car design, art making, and interior design. Smith shared the process for creating Gateway inspired by her sense of smell. Jenkins provided insights from his recent project with Lincoln, the creation of the Sanctuary House in Carmel, California. Niemeic focused on the Navigator’s interior as an example of how a vehicle can become an immersive environment.
The multi-sensory installation paired Smith’s work with a sunrise copper colored 2025 Lincoln Navigator. The installation transformed the industrial studio environment into an inviting a sanctuary, a theme that underscore’s Lincoln’s design ethos and Smith’s work.
In Gateway, a digital print that spans across four suspended pieces of flowing fabric, Smith investigates harmonies among tactile objects and the senses. She explores the relationship of color, scent, and fabric to memory, technology, and identity, a recurring theme in her large-scale abstract paintings and textile-based sculptures. Vibrant hues flow in energetic fashion and illustrate the way nature is a portal to the sanctuary, as the abstract and ethereal shapes take concrete form. The digital work is composed as an extension of Smith’s painting practice and illustrates the dimension and depth imbued by her reflections on space, color, and texture.
The Lincoln x Le Car Design Talks For the most recent conversation, timed with the debut of Gateway, the topic was “Multisensory Approaches to Art and Design,” framed by Smith’s work. Smith’s current solo museum exhibitions include Shinique Smith: PARADE at The Ringling Museum of Art and Shinique Smith: Torque at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. Torque is a further investigation into car culture and is currently on view through June 2025 and underscores Smiths wonder at the depth and breadth of Indianapolis’s racing history, as well as the fashions and patterns surrounding speedways and pathways to freedom. Torque is inspired by the city’s central role in the world of motorsports while acknowledging the history of segregation in racing. This year is the 100th anniversary of the Gold and Glory Sweepstakes at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
In addition to Violet Cashmere, Lincoln makes Mystic Forest and Ozonic Azure as digital scent options. Lincoln offers four additional scents for purchase including Cloud Balsam, Serene Seashore, Twilight Embers, and Sunlight Retreat. Lincoln Digital Scents are currently available on the Lincoln Nautilus and will be available on the 2025 Navigator, expected to arrive at dealers next spring.