Maxwell Graham Gallery now represents Michael E. Smith, following the artist’s recent solo exhibition GOAT at the gallery’s new Walker Street space in New York.
Smith, born in Detroit in 1977, is known for sparse, often unsettling installations built from everyday objects and materials whose previous lives remain visible. His work frequently turns blankets, clothing, furniture, industrial remnants and found objects into psychologically charged environments.
The representation follows GOAT, which ran at Maxwell Graham from 9th September to 24th October 2026 and took over the gallery’s raw loft space with a series of installations made from quotidian materials. Moving blankets, drop cloths, a bedsheet and a family tablecloth were hung across the windows, filtering the daylight through the space, while other works introduced sound and kinetic elements.
Smith has built an extensive international exhibition history over the past 15 years. Solo institutional exhibitions have included Mönchehaus Museum, Goslar; Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; Culturgest, Lisbon; CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux; Ludwig Forum, Aachen; La Triennale di Milano; The Power Station, Dallas; SculptureCenter, New York; De Appel, Amsterdam; Kunstverein Hannover; S.M.A.K., Ghent; 500 Capp Street Foundation, San Francisco; MSU Broad Art Museum, East Lansing; Kunsthalle Basel; Secession, Vienna; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Henry Moore Institute, Leeds; Kunstmuseum Winterthur; MASS MoCA, North Adams; and Palazzo Bentivoglio, Bologna.
He has also participated in the Whitney Biennial in 2012 and 2022, the Venice Biennale in 2019 and the Baltic Triennial in 2018.
His current exhibition at MASS MoCA, The makings of you, continues through February 2027.
Smith’s addition to the Maxwell Graham programme follows a relationship with the gallery that predates the new representation: he appeared in the gallery’s 2020 group exhibition The Unknown Dimension and in an earlier 2017 group presentation. He now joins a roster that includes Zoe Leonard, Ghislaine Leung, Cameron Rowland, Sarah Rapson, Ser Serpas and Tiffany Sia.
