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We have tragic news to report from the art world:
Lucien Smith — the celebrated artist whose paintings brought in millions at auction — has died at the age of 37.
News of Smith’s comes courtesy of the people closest to him, including longtime gallerist Bill Powers, who helped launch the painter’s career more than a decade ago.
Smith’s cause of death has not been disclosed.
“When people remember contemporary art from the early teens of this century, it will be impossible not to include the work of Lucien Smith in that conversation,” Powers told Page Six.
Smith first exploded onto the art scene after graduating from Cooper Union in 2011.
He quickly became known for his unconventional “Rain Paintings,” created by spraying paint onto canvases with fire extinguishers.
The unusual technique helped turn the young artist into one of the biggest names in New York’s early-2010s art boom. And the money soon followed.
Smith was named to Forbes‘ “30 Under 30” list in both 2013 and 2014. One of his paintings sold at Sotheby’s for $372,000 in 2014, and his work eventually commanded prices approaching $400,000 on the secondary market.
But Smith grew uncomfortable with the art-world machine that had made him famous.
He moved to Montauk and began focusing less on being the next hot young artist and more on creating opportunities for others. In 2015, he founded Serving the People, a nonprofit designed to support emerging talent in art, music and film.
“I was subscribing to this idea of what a New York City artist was that was really pretentious and unhealthy,” Smith previously said. “I’m not interested in being a New York art star.”
In 2025, Smith opened FOOD, a restaurant inspired by the legendary 1970s Soho establishment founded by artists Gordon Matta-Clark, Carol Goodden, and Tina Girouard. The restaurant became another gathering place for members of New York’s art, fashion, and music communities.
And then, remarkably, Smith appeared ready to return to the work that made him famous.
Just weeks before his death, he created four new Rain Paintings on an abandoned baseball field in Montauk. The pieces are slated to appear in an upcoming exhibition titled “Delay of Game” at Tripoli Gallery, beginning September 12.
“Life has taken me full circle,” Smith said of returning to the process.
Sadly, that comeback will now become part of his posthumous legacy.
Tripoli Gallery owner Tripoli Patterson described Smith as a “bright star,” adding that she intends to honor his vision for the exhibition.
Smith leaves behind his mother, Vivian, his younger brother, and a body of work that helped define an era of the New York art scene.
Our thoughts go out to his loved ones at this enormously difficult time.
