Fifteen years ago Smith was working in Hong Kong as managing editor of the art magazine Artention. Well-placed to identify trends in the art world, artistic as well as collector tasted, she was drawn to examples of China's new art that were appearing in the territory. Astonished to discover that nothing had yet been written about this new art, by the end of 1992, with Artention under threat of closure from its new owner, she moved to Beijing to study Chinese so she could research material for a book on the evolution of avant-garde art in China, filling what was clearly an enormous gap in the field of art history.
Though today there are literally hundreds of books on the market on the subject of China's new art, her work does ring with a real-life experience, complete recording, systematic analysis and a human touch. Being on the ground in China since the early 1990s, Smith has witnessed all art activities in the first person, and made good friends with numerous Chinese artists like Fang Lijun and Di Jianli.
But she is not just an onlooker. She has established a niche as an important focal point and resource for all involved with the China art scene.
