Kris Smith was born and raised in Chicago, IL where she received a BFA in Oil Painting from the American Academy of Art. She has exhibited paintings in galleries and venues all over Chicago including the Museum of Contemporary art, Navy Pier, and public artworks installed at the front entrance of the Field Museum and on the Magnificent Mile downtown.

For five years she taught art to teens at Gallery 37, a Chicago non profit with city-wide enrollment of inner city youth.  Inside of these programs, Kris led the teens through various mural and public art commissions for clients like the Mayor of Chicago, an architecture firm inside of the Wrigley Building and the McCormick Place Metra train station.

Since Leaving Chicago in 2019 she’s expanded her public art reach with residencies in Gardiner, Montana and Cooper, Texas. She specializes in a wide range of media including acrylic, latex, oil and enamel paints, as well as charcoal, graphite and pastel drawing mediums.