Sable Elyse Smith
Sable Elyse Smith (b. 1986, Los Angeles, CA) is an interdisciplinary artist and writer based in New York. Her creative practices span across video, performance, and the visual and literary arts. She has built a practice tracing the threads of violence and power embedded within systems of belief, infrastructure, language, intimacy, the quotidian, and beyond. She was recently included on the 2024 TIME100 Next—the magazine's annual list of 100 individuals shaping the future of their fields and defining the next generation of leadership. Her work has been featured at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; MoMA PS1; New Museum; The Studio Museum in Harlem; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Institute of Contemporary Art Boston; and numerous others. In 2022, she was included in both the Whitney Biennial and the 59th Venice Biennale. Smith has received awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Creative Capital, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Fine Arts Work Center, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and Art Matters, among others. In 2025, she was an artist-in-residence at the Rauschenberg Residency on Captiva, as well as BOFFO Fire Island. Smith is also 2026 recipient of the Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize.
Work by Sable Elyse Smith
Courtesy the artist, Carlos/Ishikawa, London and JTT, NYC.
Courtesy the artist, Carlos/Ishikawa, London and JTT, NYC.
Courtesy the artist, Carlos/Ishikawa, London and JTT, NYC.
Courtesy the artist, Carlos/Ishikawa, London and JTT, NYC.
Courtesy the artist, Carlos/Ishikawa, London and JTT, NYC.
Image courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Bortolami, New York.
Image courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Bortolami, New York.
Image courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Bortolami, New York.
Image courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Bortolami, New York.
Image courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Bortolami, New York.
Image courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Bortolami, New York.
Image courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Bortolami, New York.
Image courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Bortolami, New York.
Image courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Bortolami, New York.
Image courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Bortolami, New York.
Image courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Bortolami, New York.
News
Associate Professor of Visual Arts Sable Elyse Smith is the 2026 recipient of the Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize, a biennial prize that supports an artist with a $200,000 award and a solo exhibition premiering at The Contemporary Austin and traveling to the FLAG Art Foundation in New York.
Columbia students, alumni, and faculty are making their presence known at this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, one of the world’s premiere art fairs. Upwards of twenty Columbia affiliates will have their work presented in connection with the fair’s wide array of platforms.
Assistant Professor Sable Elyse Smith has received new representation from LA-based gallery Regen Projects, with a solo show forthcoming in 2023.
The 59th iteration of the famous International Art Exhibition, the Venice Biennale, will take place from April 23 to November 27, 2022.
From April 6 to September 5 2022, the Whitney Museum will present the 80th edition of its flagship exhibition, the Whitney Biennial.
The Queens Museum (QM) introduces Year of Uncertainty (YoU), a framework for strengthening connection among the Museum, their communities, and constituents, focused on creating new possibilities for culture, kinship, and mutual support.
The New Museum presents the intergenerational exhibition Grief & Grievance: Art and Mourning in America featuring 37 artists including Assistant Professor Sable Elyse Smith in New York.
Assistant Professor Sable Elyse Smith has work in the MoMA PS1 group exhibition Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration with her piece “Pivot II” and other works.
The School of the Arts welcomes its newest faculty member Sable Elyse Smith, Assistant Professor of Visual Arts. Smith joined the Visual Arts Program in Fall 2020.