Smith, Nora

Artist Nora Smith (born 1958, London, England) is a trained architect who uses a wide variety of media to explore space and color. Known for her vibrant paintings, collages and sculpture, Smith has also combined the disciplines of art and architecture to create a number of large-scale murals, trompe l’oeil paintings and theatre sets.

Smith attended a Catholic convent school in her early years and by the age of 14 developed the desire to be an architect. After graduating, she spent a year working for Norman Foster, the pioneering ‘High-Tech’ architect, before enrolling at Manchester University to study architecture.

In 1987, she came to the Bahamas to work in the Architecture Department of the Ministry of Works, working on a range of projects, from the Central Bank building in downtown Nassau to modest government offices that served remote communities in the Family Islands.

Inspired by her colorful surroundings, Smith exploited the drawing and painting skills that she had formerly used to illustrate designs, to express impressions of a new physical, climatic and cultural surroundings and explore the vernacular buildings.

Smith also taught art at Queen’s College in the mid-1990s for three years before practicing art full time. She is the recipient of a Dansa Award for her work in the theatre production “Doll’s House”.