Howard Smith was born in 1943 in Chicago, United States. He currently lives and works in New York and Pine Bush.
Howard Smith’s practice is rooted in the ongoing study of method and form. An abstract painter, he was a member of the “Radical Painting” movement in the 1980s. Smith focuses on the interaction between the brushstroke and the canvas, carefully applying and reapplying paint to build and vary the depth of color. His interest in the coalescence of form and space is evident in his practice and is particularly evident in the diversity of his watercolors. All of Smith’s works aim to explore the creative process and have led him to follow an evolving methodology.

Smith's work has been exhibited at Museum Line in Switzerland; the Design Museum in Finland; the Kunstmuseum Villa Zanders in Germany; the Kimmel Galleries in Switzerland; New York University; the Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia; at the Noyes Museum of Art in Atlantic City; at the Williams College Art Museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts; at the New York Cultural Center; at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in Colorado; at the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation in New York; at the Grenoble Museum of Fine Arts in France; and at the Palazzo Gatti Magazzini in Italy.