Ali Smith is a painter who lives and works in Long Beach, California. Born in 1976, Smith was raised in Whittier by a math professor dad and homemaker mom, and headed to upstate New York for college, where she received a B.S. in Studio Art from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1998, minoring in Art History and French. She spent her junior year abroad in Paris, France, which had an enormous impact on her art and life. After college, Smith moved back to California, dragging her boyfriend, now husband, artist Noah Thomas along. She completed her graduate degree at California State University, Long Beach in 2003 and has actively exhibited her large-scale paintings since graduation. Smith has been in numerous group and solo shows both in Los Angeles and internationally, including exhibitions in Tokyo, Amsterdam, Austria, Texas and an upcoming solo show at DNA Galerie in Berlin. Her work has been included in Pulse Miami and New York, and Smith will have solo shows at Mark Moore Gallery in Santa Monica and Rhys Gallery in Boston in 2008.

Her work has been reviewed in Artus, the OC Weekly, the LA Times, NYArts and Artweek, among others, including a recent mention in the article by Christopher Knight: "45 Painters Under 45," in the Los Angeles Times. Drawing on her experience living in France, Smith has taught French as well as studio art  and freshman writing at the university level, and is currently the gallery director of Greenleaf Gallery at Whittier College. Her work has been acquired by various private and public collections, including the Progressive Insurance Collection, the Chaney Collection in Texas and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation.

Smith is represented by Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.