Howard Smith

Howard Smith (1928-2021) was a Finland-based African-American artist, designer, and
collector. After serving for US occupying forces in post-war Japan, Korea, and Germany, he studied at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. Uable to foresee a career at home, he went to Finland in 1962 at the height of the Cold War to help organize an exhibition of American artists and was invited to stay on. Attracted to Finland’s signature ‘less is more’ design aesthetic and tradition of table craft, he soon won the respect of Finnish artists, architects, and designers. Within a year he had begun working on architectural commissions and had mounted the first of his many solo exhibitions during a 50-year career.

Smith was awarded the Finnish State Design Prize (2001) and the State Artist’s Pension (2003). His works can be found in museum collections internationally, including Finland’s National Gallery, Helsinki; Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki; EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo; Museum of African-American Art, Los Angeles, CA; and Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.