Photo by Jonathan Echevarria
Curator, Writer, Cultural Historian
TK Smith is an award-winning writer, curator, and cultural historian, with expertise in modern and contemporary art.
Smith has 10 years of experience as an independent curator and scholar. In addition to his independent practice, he has held such official appointments as Curator, Arts of Africa and the African Diaspora at Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta and Assistant Curator: Art of the African Diaspora at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.
Smith’s writing has been published in several exhibition catalogues, academic journals, and periodicals. He has written for Art in America, the Brooklyn Rail, and ART PAPERS, where he is a contributing editor. In 2024 he was awarded the Leo and Dorothea Rabkin prize for critical art writing.
As a public scholar, Smith has lectured for several institutions, including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Saint Louis University, and Cornell University, where he served as a visiting lecturer in the Architecture, Art, and Planning program.
Smith is a doctoral candidate in the History of American Civilization program at the University of Delaware where he is completing his dissertation “Granite, Power, and Piss: The Shifting Position of a Confederate Symbol.” He earned his Master of Arts in American Studies and his Bachelor of Arts in English and African American Studies, with a certificate in Creative Writing from Saint Louis University.
Press, Interviews, Podcasts…
Podcast, “2024 Rabkin Prize Winner TK Smith,” Rabkin Interviews
Announcement, “TK Smith Joins Michael C. Carlos Museum as Curator…” Culture Type
Interview, “Art UnPhiltered: TK Smith and Grace Busser,” ICA Philadelphia Student Board
Podcast, “Creating the Context with Curator and Writer TK Smith,” Studio Noize Podcast Ep 133