Leslie Smith III was born 1985 in Maryland and grew up in metropolitan Washington, DC, graduated with a BFA degree in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2007, and obtained an MFA degree in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University in 2009. Since then his work has been included in many exhibitions in the US, such as his first solo Museum exhibition “I Dream Too Much” at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, Wisconsin; the Valérie Cassel Oliver curated exhibition “Black in the Abstract, Part 2: Soft Curves/Hard Edges” at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in Houston, Texas; and his recent solo exhibition “As I Remembered” at beta pictoris gallery in Birmingham, Alabama. His work is found in numerous private collections in the US, and he is the recipient of many Honors and Awards, such as the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts Scholarship in 2003, and the 2009 Al Held Affiliate Fellowship for the American Academy in Rome.