Craig Smith: Social Practices (2001-2026)

Opening Reception: September 18, 2026 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

A solo exhibition by Craig Smith is coming to the campus of Santa Fe Community College (Santa Fe Art Gallery) from September 18, 2026 through October 23, 2026. The exhibition is entitled: Craig Smith: Social Practices (2001-2026) and includes photography, sculptures and video documenting twenty-five years of socially engaged artworks and exhibitions in New York, London, Pittsburgh, Beijing and now, Gainesville. 

This exhibition in the Santa Fe College Art Gallery includes videos, photographs, and sculptural ‘relics’ from Smith’s individual and collaborative art projects over the last twenty-five years. Each section of the exhibition focuses on a particular element of socially engaged art, or an art form that, in part, utilizes social relations as a formal element in the production of art. The artworks on view in the exhibition include video and photographs produced during public performances on the streets of New York and in the shadows of the World Trade Center just weeks before 9/11. The exhibition also includes large-scale “social sculptures” of art seeking viewer participation in the handling, curating and exhibition of federally controlled commodities such as firearms. There are also documents of live sound performances by Smith accompanied by New York punk legends the Vores, collaborations with long-time colleague Colin Beatty, as well as photographs produced with the New York-based group “C” featuring Smith with artists Lillah Friedland and Matthew Bakkom. 

Craig Smith is a visual and performing artist whose research and practice explores the foundations of social relations as an agent in cultural production. Smith creates photographs, videos, sounds, and live performances for a wide range of exhibition spaces including museums, galleries, athletic facilities, health care clinics, and financial institutions. Smith has been included in solo exhibitions and performances across thirteen countries. Smith has been featured at PS1MOMA in New York, the Tate Modern in London, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. and has been featured as an artist and a curator by CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, one of New York state’s oldest not-for-profit galleries specializing in testing the boundaries of the photographic. Smith’s most recent book of photography is entitled American Ace: Limited Edition (with Ben Wise) and is available from Printed Matter in NYC. His most recent book of theory is entitled Relational Art: A Guided Tour (published by Bloomsbury LLC). Smith has released multiple sound recordings with both Lunacy Records and Legacy 405 (produced by Dave Copenhaver) and has performed these sound pieces live at venues including the Cantor Film Center in New York City and the Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA) in Beijing, China. Smith is currently a senior faculty member in the College of the Arts at the University of Florida.