Michael Smither b. 1939

Michael Smither was born in New Plymouth in 1939 and was educated at New Plymouth Boys' High School and Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland. 

Michael Smither has produced a vast and varied body of work over his career, translating his intimate observations of his local environments, family and friends, and objects of the everyday into works of art. His artworks have come to sit alongside our notion of identity as New Zealanders, and have cemented his position as one of this country's leading exponents of the realist style.

Smither is mainly known for his iconic super-realist paintings and screen-prints. He is acknowledged as one of several pivotal painters who emerged in the 1960s, to lead contemporary New Zealand art in new directions.

Over the past five decades Smither has constantly explored new ideas and themes connected with his own life. He is also a talented musician and composer and during the 1970s and 1980s became fascinated by the link with art and music. Smither developed his own 'Harmonic Chart' in 1982 and continued to use this as a reference for works over the following thirty years. Many paintings and sculptures could actually be played as a musical score - translating colour into sound.

Smither's paintings are held in numerable public collections including Auckland Art Gallery and Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand. His work is also included in significant private collections throughout New Zealand and overseas.

Smither had a solo exhibition at ARTIS in 2015 - a selection of not only paintings, drawings and screen-prints, but also sculptures. This exhibition was installed in both ARTIS Gallery and Jonathan Grant Gallery - a retrospective installation covering Smither's long career. In November 2021, Smither was met with great success for his sell-out solo exhibition 'Here & Now'.