Christopher Smith was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1958, and currently lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Detroit area, known for its economic and social upheavals of the ’60s and ’70s, gave him the background to see how the memory of artistic form survives even the hard effects of time. From the sacred to the secular, the human figure has always interested him. All of his pieces are unique creations, which he models from life. “Every time the model poses,” he says, “I am amazed at the redolence of the human form.”

Christopher Smith always intended to be a sculptor. Upon completing a degree in sculpture at the University of Michigan, he opened an independent studio. His theme has consistently been the figure, in solitary or in combination with other figures in compositional narratives. He sculpts mostly in clay and direct plaster, and casts in uncommon materials. Since the mid 1980s his figures have been exhibited extensively in North America and the UK.

He has worked with other sculptors, and with commercial and ornamental interests, as a sculptor and fabricator of forms found in nature. One contribution he has made to these efforts is a feeling for space and scale. He has sculpted for film, public monuments, religious buildings, corporate art, and the art gift market.

Christopher Smith’s figures are in private collections and have been exhibited in public buildings and gardens, including Park Avenue Atrium, New York, and Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina. In 2003, he received the teaching portion of the inaugural Frank Gasparro Memorial Fellowship award of the Fleisher Art Memorial, administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He is represented by Riverbank Arts, Stockton, New Jersey, and exhibits with the independent curator, Eileen Tognini.

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