NADA Miami 2025

Natalie Lerner | Joshua Smith

December 2 - 6, 2025

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Ice Palace Studios

1400 North Miami Avenue: D102

Miami, FL 33136

839 will present a two-person booth featuring New York-based artist Natalie Lerner and Los Angeles-based artist Joshua Smith at the 23rd edition of NADA Miami 2025, taking place December 2 to 6 at Ice Palace Studios at 1400 North Miami Avenue. 

Natalie Lerner produces intricate drawings on paper that fuse abstracted references to daily life with fragments of handwritten correspondence, in a recurring motif she calls “burning letters.” Mounted to panel and sometimes canvas, her drawings hover slightly off the wall, creating dense, tactile fields of shape, line, and texture. The compositions feel at once intimate and expansive; rooted in the personal but resonating beyond her immediate scope. 839 presented Lerner's solo exhibition, Inheritor, in the spring of 2025.

Joshua Smith’s practice is grounded in monochrome painting, which he approaches as both a conceptual and a material framework. His shaped canvases–ranging from tight rectangular forms to elongated diagonals–are painted with a roller in saturated, uniform fields of color. Each work is finished with a ⅜-inch painted edge that wraps slightly around the side before yielding to raw canvas. He foregrounds color as both formal and socially attuned, exploring the emotional and cultural associations that emerge through the isolation and juxtaposition. Smith will have a solo exhibition at 839 in September 2026.

For NADA Miami, the gallery will pair Smith’s shaped monochrome paintings with Lerner’s circular drawings–distinct yet resonant bodies of work linked by their attention to surface, edge, and the tension between gesture and restraint. Both artists push against the traditional rectangular frame: Lerner’s use of the circle and Smith’s angled and curving panels each propose alternative compositional logics that expand the viewer’s spatial engagement. While Lerner’s compositions are marked by density, texture, and the trace of the hand, Smith eschews visible mark-making in favor of smooth, chromatic presence. This offers a compelling dialogue: the linear geometry of Smith’s works amplify the gentle gradients, tonal residues, and soft edges in Lerner’s. Their contrast sharpens the character of each, revealing unexpected visual affinities.

Natalie Lerner (b. 1992, Sarasota, Florida) received her BFA from Ringling College of Art & Design in 2014. She attended the AICAD/NY Independent Study Program in 2013. In 2023, she was a resident at the Orein Arts in Upstate NY. Lerner has presented her work in solo and two-person exhibitions at Mouse Gallery (Detroit); Parent Company (Brooklyn); Left Field Gallery (Los Osos, CA); Arts Center Sarasota (FL); 4ws (Los Angeles); and Secret Floor (Brooklyn). She has also exhibited in group exhibitions across the U.S. and internationally, including at September Gallery (Kinderhook, NY); Picture Theory Gallery (New York); Underdonk (Brooklyn); Stockton University (Galloway, NJ); Camayuhs (Atlanta, GA); Art Cake (Brooklyn); Kunstraum Super (Vienna, Austria); Feinkunst Krüger (Hamburg, Germany); Underground Flower x PeePee Gallery (Fremantle, Australia); and Geoffrey Young Gallery (Great Barrington, MA).

Joshua Smith (b. 1983, Houston) is an artist based in Los Angeles. He attended the AICAD New York Studio Program in 2004 and received a BFA from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan in 2005. He has had solo exhibitions at Albert Baronian (Brussels), Essex Flowers, SOUTHFIRST, Shoot the Lobster, PACS Gallery, West Street Gallery, Art Production Fund, Artists Space, and John Connelly Presents (all New York). His work has been exhibited in group exhibitions at Leroy’s and 839 (both Los Angeles), Marlborough Gallery (London), MoMA PS1 (New York), White Flag Projects (St. Louis), and has been written about in ARTnews, Artforum, Interview, New York Magazine, and The New York Times.

For images and inquiries: info@839gallery.com

About NADA

Founded in 2002, the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) is a not-for-profit 501c6 collective of professionals working with contemporary art. Its mission is to create an open flow of information, support, and collaboration within the field and to develop a stronger sense of community among its constituency. NADA believes that the adversarial approach to exhibiting and selling art has run its course. It believes that change can be achieved through fostering constructive thought and dialogue between various points in the art industry from large galleries to small spaces, non-profit and commercial alike. Through support and encouragement, NADA facilitates strong and meaningful relationships between its members working with new contemporary and emerging art; while enhancing the public’s interaction with contemporary art.

newartdealers.org

VIP Preview (by Invitation):

Tuesday, Dec 2, 10am–4pm

Open to the Public:

Tuesday, December 2, 4–7pm

Wednesday, December 3, 11am–7pm

Thursday, December 4, 11am–7pm

Friday, December 5, 11am–7pm

Saturday, December 6, 11am–6pm

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