Philip Smith was born 1952 in Miami, Florida. He has a B.A. from Clark University Worchester, and a M.A. from Pratt Institute Brooklyn, NY.

Smith was a part of the original Pictures Generation in NY which later came to include artists such as John Baldessari, Sarah Charlesworth, Barbara Kruger, Allan McCollum, Richard Prince and David Salle. To begin with Philip Smith was included in the original exhibition “Pictures” exhibition in 1977 together with artists such as Jack Goldstein and Robert Longo and Sherrie Levine. While for some of the artists in the "Pictures Generation" Smith reached extreme success and others were not as lucky, however influential on the future of contemporary art.

Philip Smith’s career has for over 40 years continued to evolve with some ups and downs while he has remained a well respected and influential name in the art world. Philip Smith has in the last decade produced some very original paintings that opened up the understanding for his work to some of the astral and spiritual forces which have freed him from the need to clearly outline and organize the different symbols in his paintings, but at the same time remained in beautiful and romantic forms and ancient symbols and represent here and now in contemporary art. 

His work is included in many Museums and Public collections such as Whitney Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Art, Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, Perez Art Museum, and Detroit Institute of Art, Jewish Museum, among others. He has also been included in Whitney and Bejing Biennials. Smith currently lives and works in Miami, Florida.