# Lucien Smith

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". Smith was hailed as the art world’s "wunderkind" by The New York Times. He has exhibited at prestigious blue-chip galleries such as Skarstedt and Salon 94, 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.

## Education

Smith graduated with a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art in 2011.

## Art market

Artsy estimated in 2014 that Smith generated a total of $3.7 million at auction that year.
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. 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.

## 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.

## 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. 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.

### 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. 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.