Lee N. Smith III moved to Dallas from New Orleans when he was six. He had no formal art training, but started to paint in 1974 and had his first one-man exhibition at the University of Texas at Arlington in 1979. In 1984, he was one of less than thirty artists chosen to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale.
Smith quickly became acclaimed for paintings that draw from his childhood memories, often set in surreal suburban landscapes. In the early 90s, he worked at Flatbed Press on etching and monotype projects. His where abouts presently is unknown.
