Melanie Smith was born in England in 1965. She lives and works between Mexico City and London. Her work, in diverse media, has reflected on the extended field of painting within the history of art and its entanglement with moving image. She is interested in fragmented montage, and creates filmic and performative experiences that often allude to behind the scene productions and political farse. Mostly, her work shatters any rational significance, as a way of thinking through contingent forms and being.

She has exhibited at numerous institutions including PS1 and MOMA, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Tate, London; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City. In 2011 she represented Mexico at the 54th Venice Biennale. “Melanie Smith: Farce and Artifice” a panoramic survey, was presented at MACBA Barcelona in 2018, and traveled to MUAC Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Museo Amparo Puebla, 2019 and MARCO Monterrey in 2020.