Designed from memories, observations, personal experiences, and imagination, I paint dreamlike, atmospheric spaces. Through geometry and saturated hues, familiar structures dissolve into emotional landscapes, revealing how place is transformed through recollection. Blurring the line between fantasy and reality, the paintings become something more intimate, charged, and luminous than what is simply seen.
Originally from St. Augustine, Florida, I lived in many cities before settling in South Florida. When I moved to Miami in 2008, I felt an immediate sense of belonging—an experience that led me to investigate the visual language and color psychology of South Florida. Early works focused on façade studies—breezeblock patterns, awnings, doors, and windows—painted from impressions gathered while walking the city. These studies became High Noon, a series driven by surface division, saturated color, and sharp geometric summer shadows unique to Miami. Night Swimming continued this exploration through larger, more experimental compositions that merge observation and imagination, and could be any place. In these dreamlike scenes, color becomes a form of leisure, pushing familiar spaces into neon, otherworldly environments.
Across all my work, invention through memory and improvisation drives the process: beginning with a recalled image, I build form, color, and space until an imagined landscape emerges. Paint, texture, and surface carry the same weight as the imagery itself, forming psychologically charged scenes that suggest narratives of place and identity. My current series, Open Skate, extends my practice into figuration and movement. Inspired by South Florida’s roller-skating community, these works combine saturated color, geometry, and light to capture the freedom, inclusivity, and shared joy found within this vibrant culture.
Bio
Carmen Smith (b. 1977) in Jacksonville, Florida lives and works in Hollywood, Florida. Smith received a B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Richmond, VA, where she was awarded the Academic and Creative Excellence Award (2005). Smith is currently a M.F.A. Painting Candidate at Savannah College of Art and Design. Smith is known for her brightly colored paintings of South Florida architectural imagery. Selected Solo exhibitions include “Night Swimming," 2021, at Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia; “Rushing Down,” 2022, at Coral Springs Museum of Art in Coral Springs, Florida; and “Color Pools,” 2024, at Imago Por Las Artes in South Miami, Florida. Selected group exhibitions include the 8th Annual All-Media Juried Biennial, 2017, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, Florida; Frank Contemporaries, 2022, The Frank C. Ortis Gallery, Pembroke Pines Florida; and BFA Broward's Art & Somm, Mad Arts Museum, 2025, Hollywood, Florida. Smith was a recipient of the Broward Cultural Division Individual Artist Grant, 2024. Her work is in the permanent collection of RSM US headquarters at the Main in Las Olas in Ft. Lauderdale as well as many private collectors in the US and Colombia. She is a member of the Bakehouse Art Complex and the SOBRA Collective.
CV
Carmen M. Smith
b. 1977, Jacksonville, FL
Education
2005 BFA magna cum laude, Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, Richmond, VA
1999 BA, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, Lynchburg, VA
Grants and Awards
2024 Individual Artist Grant, Broward Cultural Division
2017 Merit Certificate, 6th Annual “Paint Me Miami” Art Competition
2003 Academic and Creative Excellence Award, VCU School of the Arts
Solo Exhibitions
2024 Night Swimming, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL June 18 - Sept 1
2024 Color Pools, Imago Por Las Artes, Miami, FL January - March Jan 28 - March 24
2022 Rushing Down, Coral Springs Museum of Art, Coral Springs, FL May 3-June 18
2021 Night Swimming, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA, Apr 2-May 21
Juried Group Exhibitions
2025 Art & Somm, Mad Arts Museum, November 6
Figure/Ground, Studio 18, Pembroke Pines, Jan 24 – May 3
The Driven Woman, Miramar Cultural Center, March 12-31
2023 Fountainhead Artist Open, Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami, FL, May 13
Art Hollywood, Young Arts Park, Hollywood, FL, January 28
2022 Exposed, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL, August 28-September 24
Frank Contemporaries, The Frank C. Ortis Gallery, Pembroke Pines, FL, August 25
Water Glances/Miradas de Agua, Imago, Coral Gables, FL, February 26-May 8
2021 Exposed, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL, August 21-September 25
2020 Exposed, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL, August 29-September 26
2019 The Portfolio Review Series, Coral Gables Museum, Miami, FL, August 2
Topography, Willow Street Gallery, Washington, DC, Mar 9-Apr 14
Sense of Place, Arts Warehouse, Delray Beach, FL, Jan 11-Feb 25 (2 Person exhibition)
2018 Superfine! NYC Art Fair, New York, NY, May 2-6
Civil Rites, Sandrell Rivers Theatre, Miami, FL, January 21-April 4
Art Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, January 24-28
2017 Superfine! Miami, Miami Art Week, Miami, FL, December 6-10
Paint Me Miami, Little Haiti Cultural Center Art Gallery, Miami, FL, September 2-October 7
Everything Old Is New Again, Superfine! NYC Art Fair Curated Gallery, New York, NY, May 4-7
Superfine! NYC Art Fair, New York, NY, May 4-7
8th Annual All-Media Juried Biennial, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL, Jan 21-March 5
2016 Spectrum Miami, Miami Art Week, Miami, FL, November 30-December 4
Bibliography
Chacon, Katherine, “Miradas de Agua,” El Nacional (Venezuela), April 2022
Oz, Joe, “Conversation Pieces,” Brickell Magazine, Art Basel Edition, December 2021
Granfield, Caitlin, “Next Big Thing,” Indulge Miami Magazine, Art Basel Edition, December 2017-January 2018
Galeano, Christie, “Four Broward Based Artists Will Showcase Their Work at Art Basel,” Gold Coast Magazine, December 2017
“Local Artists Take Center Stage at Art and Soul,” Sun Sentinel, March 29, 2017
“Become At Home With Art,” Miami Art Guide, November 2016, Miamiartguide.com
Affiliations
2017 – Present, Associate Artist, Bakehouse Artist Complex, Miami, FL