Dean Smith received a double B.A. in Art and the History of Art in 1984 and a M.F.A. degree in 1988 all from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a recipient of a California Arts Council Fellowship Award in 2002.

Smith's drawings have exhibited nationally and internationally with recent solo exhibitions at Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, and Marvelli Gallery, New York. His drawings are represented in numerous public collections: The British Museum, London; the Hammer Museum; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery; the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; and the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum.

Smith's films have screened at San Francisco Cinematheque; The 19th London Lesbian/Gay Film Festival at the National Theater, London; the Clarke Centre, Montreal; the Kunst Museum, Zurich; ATA: Artists Television Access, San Francisco; and in galleries nationally and internationally.

Dean Smith lives in Berkeley, California.