Lucien Smith

{{Infobox artist

| name = Lucien Smith

| image = File:Lucien Smith Portrait.jpg

| caption = Lucien Smith, Paris - 2021

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1989}}

| birth_place =

| death_date =

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| nationality = American

| field = Painting

| training = The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art

| movement =

| works =

| patrons = Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, Jose Mugrabi

| influenced by =

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| website = https://www.luciensmithstudio.com/

}}

Lucien Smith is a multidisciplinary artist whose abstract works and diverse projects have earned him international acclaim. A graduate of The Cooper Union, he was twice featured in Forbes "30 Under 30" in the category of "Art & Style".{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/special-report/2012/30-under-30/30-under-30_art.html|title=30 Under 30 - Art & Style |work=Forbes|access-date=25 March 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/01/06/30-under-30-the-best-of-art-style/|title=30 Under 30: The Best Of Art And Style|first=Susan|last=Adams|work=Forbes|access-date=25 March 2018}} Smith was hailed as the art world’s "wunderkind" by The New York Times.{{cite web|url=https://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/on-view-a-wunderkind-artist-summons-a-barely-bygone-new-york/|title=A Wunderkind Artist Summons a Barely Bygone New York|first=Julie|last=Baumgardner|date=7 May 2013|work=The New York Times T Magazine|access-date=25 March 2018}} He has exhibited at prestigious blue-chip galleries such as Skarstedt and Salon 94,{{cite web|url=http://www.vogue.com/872434/lucien-smith-new-show-skarstedt/|title=Can Anything Stop Art-World Wunderkind Lucien Smith?|work=Vogue|author=Mark Guiducci|date=19 May 2014|access-date=25 March 2018}} and has had solo exhibitions mounted at major museums. His collaborations span across creative fields, including partnerships with artists like Travis Scott and Virgil Abloh, and he directed a short film narrated by Glenn O'Brien, which was shown at Gagosian Gallery in New York City.{{cite web|url=https://www.wmagazine.com/story/lucien-smith-exhibition-gagosian|title=Lucien Smith Brings Art, Film, and Fashion Together in New Exhibition at Gagosian|first=Stephanie|last=Eckardt|work=W Magazine|access-date=15 October 2024}}

Education

Smith graduated with a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art in 2011.{{cite web|url=http://arrestedmotion.com/2011/11/showing-lucien-smith-cripple-creek-ritter-zamet-london/ |title=Showing: Lucien Smith – "Cripple Creek" @ Ritter / Zamet (London) |website=Arrested Motion |date=25 November 2011 |access-date=18 February 2012}}

Art market

Artsy estimated in 2014 that Smith generated a total of $3.7 million at auction that year.{{cite web|url=https://www.artsy.net/artist/lucien-smith/auction-results?sort=-auction_date&page=3|title=Lucien Smith - 64 Artworks, Bio & Shows |website=Artsy|access-date=25 March 2018}}

Smith is associated with other young painters such Oscar Murillo and Jacob Kassay whose work has appreciated rapidly and are favored by collectors for investment-ready fare.{{cite news|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/2014-06-04/art/lucien-smith-skarstedt/|title=At UES Show, Lucien Smith Leads the Charge of the Opportunist Brigade |work=Village Voice|date=4 June 2014 |access-date=7 June 2014}} A work from Smith's 2011 Cooper Union graduate show was resold in November 2013 for $389,000. In February 2014, his work Two Sides of the Same Coin sold for £224,500 at a Sotheby's auction in London.{{cite web|title=Lot 1 12 February 2014 |url=http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/contemporary-art-evening-auction-l14020/lot.1.html |publisher=Sotheby's |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6NOiHW24n?url=http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/contemporary-art-evening-auction-l14020/lot.1.html |archive-date=15 February 2014 |url-status=live }}
- {{cite news|title=London Auction Houses See High Prices for Contemporary Art |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/arts/design/london-auction-houses-see-high-prices-for-contemporary-art.html|author=Carol Vogel |work=The New York Times|date=13 February 2014 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6NOhxg1wL?url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/arts/design/london-auction-houses-see-high-prices-for-contemporary-art.html?_r=0 |archive-date=15 February 2014 |url-status=live }}

Serving the People

In 2017, Smith launched the Serving the People (STP) an organization building the future of creativity, collaboration, and communication. Guided by a network of creatives and technologists, STP aims to rebuild the infrastructure for cultural participation.{{Cite web|url=http://officemagazine.net/serve-people-lucien-smith|title=Serve the People Lucien Smith|date=14 May 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://docs.stp.world/|title=What is Serving the People?|date=22 July 2022}}

Artworks

= Rain Paintings =

In 2011, Smith executed a suite of abstractions he calls Rain Paintings, which he creates by spraying fire extinguishers filled with paint.{{cite web|last=Bollen|author-link=Christopher Bollen|first=Christopher|title=Lucien Smith|url=http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/the-new-abstract-lucien-smith#|work=Interview |date=12 December 2013}} In 2014 an example of these works titled Two Sides of the Same Coin sold at Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Auction London's first lot for $372,000 against an estimate of $66,000–99,000.{{Cite web|url=https://news.artnet.com/opinion/history-zombie-formalism-1318352|title = The Toxic Legacy of Zombie Formalism, Part 1: How an Unhinged Economy Spawned a New World of 'Debt Aesthetics'|date = 26 July 2018}}{{cite web | title=(#1) Lucien Smith | website=Sothebys.com| url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/contemporary-art-evening-auction-l14020/lot.1.html?locale=en%20 | access-date=9 December 2023}}

= Camo Paintings =

In 2014, Smith produced Tigris, a show of 11 camouflage-patterned abstract paintings, inspired by the recollection of the first work of art that strongly impacted him—Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa.{{Cite web|url=https://www.skarstedt.com/exception/info|title=Skarstedt Gallery|website=www.skarstedt.com|accessdate=9 December 2023}} The exhibit was described as "undistinguished" and "a shrewd career move".

Exhibitions

=Solo exhibitions=

  • A Day Above Ground is a Good One, Kapp Kapp, New York, 2024
  • People are Strange, Will Schott Gallery, New York, 2024
  • Handyman, Lucien Smith Studio, New York, 2024
  • Southampton Suite, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, 2020
  • Lucien Smith Curated by Bill Powers, Half Gallery, Paris, France, 2019
  • Tulips!, The Fireplace Project, Amagansett, New York, 2018
  • "Friends", Empty Gallery, New York, 2018
  • Cosmas & Damian, Moran Bondaroff, Los Angeles, 2017
  • Ship of Fools, Appointment Only, Los Angeles, 2017
  • Allergic to Morning, Moran Bondaroff, Los Angeles, 2016
  • Vicious Cycles, Surf Lodge, Montauk, 2016
  • Tigris, Skarstedt Gallery, New York, 2014
  • Nature is my Church, Salon 94, New York, 2013
  • Scrap Metal, Bill Brady / KC, Kansas City, 2013
  • A Clean Sweep, Suzanne Geiss, Co., New York, 2013
  • Good Vibrations, Half Gallery, New York, 2012
  • Seven Rain Paintings, OHWOW Gallery, Los Angeles, 2012
  • Needle in the Hay and Cripple Creek, Ritter-Zamet, London, 2011
  • Imagined Nostalgia, Cooper Union, New York, 2011.

=Group exhibitions=

  • The Smiths, Marlborough Gallery, London, 2019
  • MIDTOWN, curated by Jeanne Greenberg and Michele Maccarone, Lever House, New York, 2017
  • Intimate Paintings, Half Gallery, New York, 2015
  • Matters of Pattern, Skarstedt, New York, 2015
  • Prospect New Orleans, curated by Franklin Sirmans, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, 2014
  • Next, Arsenal, Montréal, Canada, 2014
  • ANAMERICANA, curated by Vincenzo de Bellis, American Academy in Rome, Rome, 2013
  • The Writing is on the Wall, Jonathan Viner, London, 2013
  • Sunsets and Pussy, with Ed Ruscha, Betty Tompkins and Piotr Uklanksi, Marianne Boesky, New York, 2013
  • Merci Mercy, curated by Christine Messineo, 980 Madison Avenue, New York, 2013
  • Beyond the Object, Brand New Gallery, Milan, 2013
  • It Ain't Fair 2012, OHWOW Gallery, Miami Beach, 2012
  • Homebody, The Stillhouse Group, Brooklyn, 2011
  • It Ain't Fair: Materialism, OHWOW Gallery, Miami, 2011
  • Objects that Love You Back, curated by Grear Patterson, Stillhouse, New York, 2010
  • It Ain't Fair 2010, OHWOW Gallery, Miami, 2010
  • New Deal, curated by Kyle Thurman and Matt Moravec, Art Production Fund Gallery, New York, 2009
  • May Flowers, curated by Scott Keightley, New York, 2009
  • I want a little sugar in my bowl, curated by Terence Koh, ASS Gallery, New York, 2009
  • Stillhouse, Seven Eleven Gallery, New York, 2009.

References

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