Bio

Christine Lee Smith is an award winning portrait photographer in Southern California. Smith received her MFA from Azusa Pacific University. Smith’s research interests lie in photography’s relationship to embodiment and identity, and she has presented original papers on photography’s relationship to gender, as well as photography’s relationship to death, at CIVA biennials, and at Baylor University in 2022. Smith received honorable mentions in the Julia Margaret Cameron Award, and was a finalist in the Taylor Wessing National Portrait Gallery award. Her work has appeared in the Duncan Miller Gallery, Gallery 825, and the Museum of Latin American Art. Her work can also be viewed on Instagram @christineleesmithphoto.


Curriculum Vitae

(b. 1981, Lakewood, California. Lives and works in Anaheim, California)

Education

2020, MFA Visual Art, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA

Select Solo Exhibitions

2023 Digital Ineffable, Life Pacific University Gallery, San Dimas, CA

2022 Fall Into the Sky, SEEDS Gallery, Orange, CA

2020 Portraits on Estrangement,​ Duke Gallery, Azusa, CA 

2019 Unblushed,​ I Gallery, Azusa, CA

2015 Truth + Beauty,​ Black Umbrella Art Gallery, Garden Grove, CA

Select Group Exhibitions

2024 New Realities, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL

2024 Ways of Seeing, Biola University, La Mirada, CA

2023 Aqua, Gallerium, Online

2022 Out of Nothing, Ex Nihilo Gallery, Online

2022 She Becomes, Duke Gallery, Azusa, CA

2022 Faculty Exhibition, Biola University, La Mirada, CA

2021 Yes!, CIVA, Virtual Exhibition

2021 Alumni + Faculty Show, California Baptist University, Riverside, CA

2019 Silver: An Analog Photography Exhibit​, Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, CA

2019 SoCal MFA Annual Exhibition,​ Millard Sheets Art Center, Pomona, CA 

2018 Summertime​, Duncan Miller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 

2018 Women in Sports​, Biscailuz Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 

2018 Trappings,​ Gallery 825, Los Angeles,CA

2017 CHAOSMOS,​ Exhale Unlimited Gallery, Los Angeles,CA

2016 Artful Healing​, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA 

Select Awards, Grants & Residencies

2022 Honorable Mention, 17th Julia Margaret Cameron Award, Barcelona, ES

2019 Finalist,​ T​aylor Wessing Prize, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK

2019 Development Grant, The Grove Center, Valley Center, CA 

2016 Port of Long Beach Photo Gallery,​ Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA

Curation

2022 She Becomes, Duke Gallery, Azusa, CA. Kelsey Overstreet, Yvonne Cavanagh, Christine Lee Smith.

2019  Growing Up, Altadena Library District, Altadena, CA. Stephen Felix Jager, Amara Sarmiento, Joshua Freeman, Sarah Kuhn

2019 Varying Perspectives, Progress Gallery, Pomona, CA. Joshua Freeman, Amara Sarmiento, Christianna Soumakis, Eric Valencia

2019 HER, Black Umbrella Art Gallery, Garden Grove, CA. Lauren Mendelson-Bass, Chloe Jeongmyo Kim, Palmer Earl, Alison Butcher, Jas Mowgood, Ryah Massarweh, Karla Frazier, Fandel, Julia Gray, Shelley Kommers, Rachel Mangold, Daniel Trent, Kim Nelson, Susan Osborn, Jutta Rineberg, Melissa Scrivner, Liz Thomas, Keiko Yamada, Sarah Edmunds

2019 Female Artists: Past and Present, Inland Empire Museum of Art, Upland, CA. Dorthea Lange, Dody Weston Thompson, Marion Post Wolcott, Mary Ellen Mark, Sonia Noskowiak, Celeste Blair, Sumi Foley, Christianna Soumakis, Jacki Knell, Fatemeh Burnes, Barbara Beretich, Gail Corbette Sherman, Jill Jones, Christine Wiseman, Cindy Rinne, Joanna Mersereau, BJ Lane, Eileen Senner, Donna Morin, Patricia Woodhull, Ruthann Greenblat, Marina Diaz, Penny McElroy, Nancy Caldwell

Commissions & Collections

2015 City of Garden Grove, ​Lampshades on Main Street,​ Painter, Garden Grove, CA 

2015 “Hammer is the Prayer,” Black Umbrella Art Gallery, Collection, Garden Grove, CA

Select Research & Presentations

2022 "Catherine Opie's Pig Pen & The Christ: The Spiritually Formative Impact of Identity Portraiture," Baylor University, Waco, TX, October 27

2021 "Looking at Death: Following Christ in Embodied Life," session chair Taylor Worley, Christians in the Visual Arts Biennial Conference, Austin, TX, November 6

2021 Artist Presenter, “Identity Portraiture,” Biola University, La Mirada, CA, March 25 

2021 Artist Presenter, “Portraits on Estrangement,” California Baptist University, Riverside, CA, February 16

2020 Artist Presenter, “Making Art in Difficult Times,” California Baptist University, Riverside, CA, November 12

2020 "Identity Portraiture: Cultivating an Empathetic Viewing," MFA Thesis, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, August 20

2019 Guest Artist Presenter, Arts Praxis, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, St. Paul, MN, November 18

2019 “Female Photographers: An Exploration of Embodiment, Identity, and Gender,” session chair Cindi Beth Johnson, Christians in the Visual Arts Biennial Conference, St. Paul, MN, June 14

Using Format