Lleah Smith was born on Cabrogal Country, Australia, and is currently based in Ngāmotu, Aotearoa. She is Head of Public Practice + Creative Enquiry at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre and Puke Ariki Museum and Libraries. Smith works across pedagogy, art, and the curatorial, and has made significant contributions to the Asia-Pacific over the past 12 years.

Smith is also a current PhD candidate at Monash University. Her research agitates the relationships across pedagogy, art, and the curatorial by positioning fermentation as a material practice, metaphor, methodology, and method (m4) in guiding knowledge exchange. She is committed to creating spaces where ‘productive agitation’ can fizz, funk and flourish.

Smith’s independent research into the ‘para-pedagogical’, which bubbled to the surface during a 2024 residency at Konstmuseet i Norr (KIN), in the Swedish Arctic, encapsulates 12 years of practice of ‘learning beside’ in extended and expensive ways.

Notable projects include, Story Worlds curated with a working group (2025), Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre and Puke Ariki Museum and Libraries; Radical Care Kit, Sydney Children’s Hospital (2023–2024); The Waterhouse, 23rd Biennale of Sydney, rīvus (2021–2022); and Kaldor Studio, Kaldor Public Art Projects x Art Gallery of NSW (2019). Her leading independent projects include Thinking Bodies. Fermenting Worlds, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery (2025); Hidden Lessons, Powerhouse (2021–2022); and FUTURE SCHOOL, Cementa22 (2022).

Previously, Smith was Curator, Programs and Learning, at the Biennale of Sydney, and Artistic Lead at 4A Centre for Asian Australian Art. She is a current member of the Arts.Creativity.Education Research Group, Monash University, and the Climate Aware Creative Practices Network, with representatives across Australia.