Michael E. Smith Breaks a Decade of Silence Ahead of Mass MoCA Show
An artist who has spent ten years avoiding interviews has stepped back into the conversation. Michael E. Smith — a sculptor-poet born in Detroit in 1977, now living and working in Providence, Rhode Island — gave an extensive interview to ARTnews / Art in America published on 14 August 2026, titled "Michael E Smith Opens Up After a Decade of Dodging Interviews" (ARTnews / Art in America).
The timing is not accidental. Smith's largest institutional exhibition to date, "The makings of you," is on view at Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, through 21 February 2027. Installed in the museum's Building 4.1, the show brings what one Artforum listing describes as "the automotive/car-wash vernacular" into the gallery — with an artwork that overflows beyond the exhibition space itself (Artforum). A member and artist opening reception was held at the museum on 23 May 2026.
Smith makes sculptures and installations from the most ordinary objects imaginable: sneakers, buckets, things you might walk past in a parking lot. The Mass MoCA exhibition page describes his practice as turning familiar everyday items into something altogether stranger within the institution's walls (Mass MoCA). A Detroit native, Smith showed six times early in his career at the Susanne Hilberry Gallery in that city before his work began appearing in major institutions (Artforum).
His recent institutional resume has been building steadily. According to Modern Art, the London gallery that represents him, Smith has had solo exhibitions at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds (2023), Kunstmuseum Winterthur in Switzerland (2024), and now Mass MoCA (2026) (Modern Art). He is also represented by Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York (Andrew Kreps Gallery) and Maxwell Graham, which has organised ambitious group exhibitions including "A still life by Chardin" at Lisson Gallery in London in 2017, featuring artists such as Cameron Rowland, Trisha Donnelly, and Cathy Wilkes (Maxwell Graham).
A decade is a long silence for any artist, let alone one whose career has been gaining institutional traction across three continents. Smith's work — spare, made from materials that carry the wear of use rather than the polish of the studio — sits at an unusual intersection of poetry and plumbing. His decision to speak now, with a major museum show as the backdrop, gives readers a rare chance to hear directly from an artist who has let the objects do the talking for years.
Mass MoCA, located at 1040 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247, is one of the largest contemporary art museums in the United States, housed in a former textile-factory complex. The Smith exhibition remains on view through February 2027.
