Chief Curator Alicia Longwell in conversation with painter Lucien Smith - 10/2/20

Join Chief Curator Alicia Longwell and abstract painter Lucien Smith, whose 10 large-scale paintings from his 2013 Southampton Suite are currently on view, for an illustrated talk.

Lucien Smith (b.1989) is best known for his process-based works that employ both accidental and improvisational marks to create loose, all-over compositions. Organized by Alicia Longwell, Lucien Smith: Southampton Suite brings the artist’s Rain Paintings series to conclusion with the 10 large-scale paintings created in a plein air studio that he constructed on the East End during the summer of 2013. With the 9 x 7 ft acrylic on unprimed canvas Southampton Suite paintings, the artist created an immersive environment that continues his quest to “. . .replicate a natural process with manmade tools.” The ten works on view here from 2013 have never been shown as a group.

Smith’s paintings, made by filling an empty fire extinguisher with paint and spraying the canvas, became widely known soon after his 2011 graduation from Cooper Union. What appealed to Smith was the way he was able to replicate a natural process—rain—with a manmade tool. For the first Rain Paintings series, Murmur of the Heart, he used blue and yellow paint; after this initial investigations he began to use a monochromatic approach, taking a cue from the traditional depiction of rain in Japanese woodblock prints.

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Additional support provided by Sandy and Stephen Perlbinder.