John Smith was born in London in 1952 and studied film at the Royal College of Art. Over the past three decades he has developed a body of work which deftly subverts the perceived boundaries between truth and fiction, representation and abstraction. Drawing on the raw material of everyday life, Smith's meticulously crafted films rework and transform reality, playfully exploring and exposing the power of cinematic language.
John Smith's film, video and installation works have been shown in cinemas, art galleries and on television throughout the world and have been awarded major prizes at film festivals in Leipzig, Oberhausen, Hamburg, Cork, Geneva, Palermo, Graz, Uppsala, Split, Lucca, Bangkok, Ann Arbor and Chicago. Recent exhibitions include one-person shows at Ikon Gallery (Birmingham), Pearl Gallery (London), Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool), Kunstmuseum Magdeburg (Germany) and retrospectives at the 2007 Venice Biennale and Oberhausen, Cork, Tampere, Uppsala, Regensburg and Winterthur international film festivals.
John Smith lives and works in London.