Biography
Christen Smith (she/her) is a multi-modal, biracial animation artist in New York City, part of the ancestral and unceded lands of the Lenape people. Christen works in cinematic and experiential forms of animation, centering drawn techniques as a point of departure for participatory engagement.
Christen is an adjunct professor of animation at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts since 2015, and has taught throughout the City University of New York (CUNY) at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at Brooklyn College, Queens College Art Department, and Hostos Community College animation program in the South Bronx. Christen launched her commercial arts career on the Emmy-winning preschool show, The Wonder Pets, before expanding her reach as a producer, editor, animator, and creative director across the digital media frontiers of the 2010’s.
Her arts practice has been recognized by a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a residency at the Catwalk Institute. Christen holds a BFA in Film & Television from Tisch School of the Arts.
Contemplative Uppercut
Contemplative Uppercut is a creative practice navigated by animator, educator, and filmmaker Christen Smith seeking to deconstruct the forces separating people from their self and from each other, through time-based works of participatory art and academic curricula.