Tracey Snelling was born 1970, Oakland, California. She attended the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; and the San Joaquin Delta College, Stockton, California.

She was exhibited internationally and her work is part of the collections of prestigious institutions such as the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; the West Collection, Pennsylvania; and the 21c Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, just to name a few. 

In 2016 she was one of the recipients of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Award, Snelling is one of those artists whose work is structured based on a story. Her unique scale models are made from imaginary buildings, sometimes creating small towns. These buildings show fragments of movies in their windows, provoking spectators to look inside, establishing a relationship of complicity with them through voyeurism. The viewer is puzzled by the stories behind each of the characters that inhabit these “buildings” and the connection among them.