Damian Smith

Damian Smith is a curator and art critic with more than 20 years experience in the field of contemporary art. He is the director of Words For Art, an international consultancy specialising in contemporary culture and discourse.

Since 2011, Damian has been curating the Heartlands Refugee Fine Art Prize, a national art award celebrating the work of refugee artists in Australia. Damian is a curator for China Art Projects, a Beijing-based consultancy promoting contemporary Chinese art internationally.

Recent projects have included the exhibition Sifting Time…, at the Chinese Museum, Melbourne, featuring works by contemporary Chinese and Australian artists. As an art critic and writer, Damian has published over 100 articles on contemporary art, including five monographs, peer-reviewed papers for leading international journals and art museums.

He is a member of the International Association of Art Critics and his advice is regularly sought for projects in the global arena. He has held numerous positions in both the public and commercial sectors and has curated more than thirty exhibitions. His interests include contemporary Australian, Chinese and Tibetan art, the history of Modernism in the antipodes and hybrid and new-media practice.