Early Acclaim and Artistic Rise
Lucien Smith gained widespread recognition during his time at Cooper Union in New York. His senior thesis show, titled Imagined Nostalgia, presented objects representing a childhood he never actually lived. The work caught the attention of gallery owner Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn immediately. She purchased one of his pieces, which signaled the start of a rapid ascent in the contemporary art world.
His success in the early 2010s proved swift and immense. Smith earned notoriety for his Rain Paintings, where he used a common fire extinguisher to spray pigment onto large canvases. These works drew crowds and high prices. In 2012, his Good Vibrations show at Half Gallery featured altered guitar bodies. A year later, the exhibition A Clean Sweep presented brooms and newspaper arrangements that addressed New York City politics and gentrification. By 2014, his Tigris series showcased camouflage patterns meant to mimic military uniforms, further cementing his place in the scene.
Market Pressures and the Zombie Formalism Label
Despite his commercial achievements, the art world scrutinized his rapid rise. Critics labeled him and his contemporaries, such as Oscar Murillo and Jacob Kassay, as practitioners of Zombie Formalism. This term, coined by Walter Robinson in a 2014 essay, described abstract works that traded for high prices while lacking deep conceptual foundations. Collectors remained aggressive, however, and a painting from his thesis show sold for $389,000 at a Phillips auction during this period.
Smith expressed discomfort with the pace and the commercial nature of his early career. He spoke about the psychological weight of turning a personal escape into a demanding profession. In a 2014 interview with Vanity Fair, he noted that the act of painting had shifted from a creative outlet into a rigid reality. The market cooled around 2015, and Smith retreated from the spotlight to reevaluate his path. He moved to Montauk, Long Island, seeking space away from the constant pressure of art galleries and high-stakes auctions.
A Shift Toward Nonprofits and Community Projects
Moving away from the gallery system allowed Smith to pursue different interests. In 2015, he started Serving the People, a nonprofit online registry designed to assist unsigned artists and photographers. He hoped to build a space for unrefined work that existed outside the commercial gallery machine. This move signaled his interest in supporting broader artistic communities rather than focusing solely on his own production.
He returned to more traditional settings in 2020 with an exhibition of his older Rain Paintings at the Parrish Art Museum in Watermill, New York. Shortly after, he began exploring the digital art space, launching a collection of NFTs for the company Lobus. He famously referred to these digital assets as the urinal of our time, drawing a parallel to Marcel Duchamp. He also served as the director of the Cultural Innovation Lab at Lobus during this period.
Final Projects and Legacy
In his final years, Smith turned his focus toward food and social gatherings. Last year, he launched a restaurant named Food in New York's Chinatown. This project drew inspiration from a 1971 space of the same name created by Gordon Matta-Clarke, Carol Goodden, and Tina Girouard in SoHo. The modern iteration aimed to provide a gathering space for creators, echoing the historical importance of the original restaurant.
Smith remained reflective about his journey until the end. He viewed his early challenges and subsequent pivots as necessary parts of his growth. He believed that artists often exist in isolated forests, unaware of the possibilities located at the edge. His death at 37 leaves behind a complex legacy that stretches from the height of the abstract painting boom to his efforts in building community-focused platforms. The art world continues to process the loss of a figure who constantly sought to move past his own history.