Alexandria Smith was born in the Bronx, New York and earned her BFA in illustration from Syracuse University, New York; MA in art education from New York University; and MFA from Parsons The New School for Design. Alexandria was a public and charter school art teacher in Harlem and the South Bronx for over a decade. Alexandria was previously Head of Painting at the Royal College of Art in London from 2019-2023. Currently, she is Director of Undergraduate Studies in Studio Art and Assistant Professor in Painting and Printmaking at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. From 2017-18, Smith served as co-organizer of the collective Black Women Artists for Black Lives (BWA for BLM). Smith is the recipient of many awards, fellowships and residencies such as the Queens Museum/Jerome Foundation and Fine Arts Work Center Fellowships, MacDowell, Yaddo and LMCC residencies and a Pollock-Krasner Grant. Most recently, Alexandria had her third solo exhibition with Gagosian entitled “Stirrings of a Polymorphous Bloom” in Hong Kong.
