India, Sept. 10 -- Lucien Smith, a New York City artist whose art career had stagnated after a sudden rise to fame in the early 2010s, died at the age of 37. The death has come as a surprise to many, given he had recently finished a new collection of paintings and was focusing on a restaurant he opened in 2025.

His death, announced by friend and gallerist Bill Powers in an Instagram post, shocked many in the art community- particularly in New York City, given that he had been embedded in the downtown art scene for over 15 years. A cause of death has not been announced.

Lucien Smith's career took off in the early 2010s when he was still a student at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in NYC. However, he soon became d...