Moniker Artist Spotlight: Kaili Smith

Solo show at Moniker Art Fair 2018 in Shoreditch, London

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Kaili Smith was born in the Netherlands (1995) and raised in Australia. Kaili’s current work examines inner-city youth culture, offering alternative perspectives through paintings and film. The work is influenced by his upbringing and experiences growing up as a child aswell as teaching experience and research into behavioral pyscholgy.

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His earlier works looked at different people whose lives have been subjected to globalization and merging cultural influences. From migrants fighting to enter Europe on the Moroccan border, to graffiti painters in Istanbul.

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Kaili has had numerous gallery & museum exhibits in Europe and the US. He sold out his graduation show In July of 2018 at WDKA in Rotterdam where he received a bachelors degree in fine arts. This was followed up by his Debut UK solo show with Thinkspace at Moniker Art Fair which also sold out. He then graduated with a master's degree in New York after receiving a full scholarship at Parsons School of design. This was followed up by his debut US solo show "A Utopia Where The Problems Are Not Fixed" at Thinkspace Gallery in California in October 2020. 

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The new series of “Le Petit Prince” paintings from the  Netherlands-born and Australia-raised artist deal with the issues of youth criminality through the lens of his experience hearing the famous childrens’ story from his French mother as a child. Smith, who himself spent jail time for graffiti while young, wanted to present works that explore the perspective of the children who find themselves “growing up in an environment of crime, while at the same time showing the strength that children often find through this lifestyle.”