Kaili Smith – Solo exhibition
1 okt 2026 t/m 28 feb 2027In his paintings and films, Kaili Smith explores how youth culture, family structures and urban life are intertwined. At the Grachtenmuseum, he presents his first solo museum exhibition, featuring both existing work and new work created especially for this exhibition.
1 October 2026 – 28 February 2027
Kaili Smith (1995) was born in the Netherlands and grew up in Australia. For the past ten years, he has worked between Amsterdam and New York. Kaili’s work explores youth culture and family structures in the inner city, and he introduced the term ‘globalised inner-city urbanism’. He offers alternative perspectives through paintings and films. His work is influenced by his upbringing and experiences, as well as by his work as an art teacher and his research into behavioural psychology. His earlier works, created before 2017, highlighted different people whose lives have been shaped by globalisation and the blending of cultures.
His graduation exhibition in July 2018 at WDKA in Rotterdam, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, sold out completely. Kaili then earned a Master of Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design in New York, after which he took part in the Rijksakademie Residency Programme 2023–2025 in Amsterdam.
He has also participated in several group exhibitions, including the 2021 and 2023 editions of the Amsterdam Royal Palace Painting Prize Show, where he won first prize in the public award in 2021 and second prize in 2023. His work has also been shown at Het Noordbrabants Museum (2026), Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer Op Solder (2025), MORE Museum (2025), the Museum of Art & History in Lancaster (2019) and the Honolulu Museum of Art (2018).
The exhibition at the Grachtenmuseum is his first solo exhibition in a museum. In addition to showing existing work, he is creating new works especially for this exhibition.
