The American Academy in Rome proudly presents Milk Revolution a group show compiled by CURA and curated by Ilaria Marotta and Andrea Baccin inspired by Harry Smith’s attempt to turn milk into milk.

Rare Andy Warhol Screen Tests from the 1960s of figures including Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Lou Reed, Harry Smith and Edie Sedgwick screen nightly on billboards in New York’s Time Square.

The Temporary Gallery in Cologne presents a group exhibition featuring works by Peter Adair, Kasper Akhøj/ Tamar Guimarães, Wallace Berman, Franco Pinna, Harry Smith, Suzanne Treister, Rosemarie Trockel and Apichatpong Weerasethakul inspired by the life and work of Harry Smith.

The Paper Airplane Collector

Harry Everett Smith was a painter, filmmaker, and collector, but he considered himself primarily an anthropologist. Aside from a short stint at Berkeley with a researcher who studied Native American languages, Smith was almost entirely self-taught, and he approached the discipline with avidity. His best-known and most influential contribution is the “Anthology of American Folk Music,” a collection of recordings compiled from his vast personal collection of rare vinyl. Smith, who died in 1991, was, according to his friends, always collecting things, and his groups of objects would constantly morph: because he moved frequently, bits and pieces would be lost from one long-term hotel stay to another.

Installation artist and sculptor Abraham Cruzvillegas incorporates the work of Harry Smith into his Turbine Hall installation Empty Lot. Empty Lot is the Tate Modern’s inaugural Hyundai commission, a series of site-specific installations by contemporary artists.

Stories surrounding Harry Smith (1923–1991) are the stuff of legend. He was a painter, filmmaker, anthropologist, ethno-musicologist, archivist, and alchemist. Miami Rail columnist Kevin Arrow published an article on Smith including an interview with Jonas Mekas.