Lucien Smith Is Back, Subverting the Art World in the Process

Lucien Smith is back with a website that shows off all his work.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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We’ve told you time and time again that Lucien Smith is an artist to watch. But if you’ve been looking over the last year, you’ve probably had a hard time at it: he bowed out a year ago to get away from the art world that was ravaging his time (and patience). After seeing his work sell for more than $3.7m at auction, and a very public admonishment from his father, he copped a house in Montauk and went quiet. He wanted to focus on his work and leave the cannibalizing art world behind him.

Now he’s back, and in an interview with T Magazine he explains why. Mostly, it’s about subverting the artworld.

One of the reasons he departed last year, he tells the magazine, was “I wanted to find a more honest approach to making art.” Focusing on gallery shows, and hearing the gossip about sale prices was clouding the experience. So he chose isolation. He’s since learned his lesson and, as he says, “I’m being very careful about what I do now.”

Smith has started a website, luciensmithstudio.com, that pulls off the veil of the perceived limited nature of art. On the website he displays every piece of work he’s ever made, so that art buyers, and the rest of the world, can understand not only the value of the work he’s producing, but also that the intention isn’t to purchase it and lock it up on a wall somewhere. His work is about the work – and nothing more. The website will be updated as more work is completed.

“I wanted to build a positive community around the art community and guiding people to not go down that road and not make mistakes,” Smith explains. “Just creating a positive environment.”

He hasn’t sworn off galleries entirely. He's now working with Bill Powers at Half Gallery. Powers is a friend of his, Smith says, and someone who he feels he can trust.

[via T Magazine]

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