Alexandria Smith


Alexandria Smith is an American artist based in London and New York City. She is currently the head of painting at the Royal Academy of Art.
Smith was a co-organizer of the collective Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter from 2016–2017. The collective, which consists of over 100 black women artists, held a public event at the New Museum in NYC in 2016. Smith was quoted as saying, "I was in the company of women who wanted to use their gifts to instigate change, to let our humanity be seen and heard despite what others may believe. I know our work is not done and that this collective will continue to bring about healing and work against the grain in other iterations at other institutions. I look forward to continuing to help carry that torch. Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter has reinstilled in me a belief in our abilities as Black women artists to be nurturing, compassionate, genuine, and powerful by any means necessary."

Selected Exhibitions

Throughout her career, Smith has had solo exhibitions at the Queens Museum, Boston University's Stone Gallery, and The Union for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE. Monuments To An Effigy, Smith's 2019 exhibition at the Queens Museum, focused on the Old Town of Flushing Burial Ground, which was a cemetery for African Americans and Native Americans during the 1800s and paved over by the Park Department in the 1930s. Smith's project centered around remembering the women buried at this site through music, poetry and installation, as only four graves were marked, and all of them men.
Try a Little Tenderness, Smith's 2017 exhibition at The Union, consisted of paintings about Black Identity and the female body.

Awards and Residencies