Kaili Smith was born in the Netherlands (1995) and raised in Australia. Now working between Amsterdam and New York for the past 8 years.

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 well as art teaching and research into behavioral psychology.

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, too graffiti painters in Istanbul.

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. Followed up by debut UK solo show 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. His debut US solo show "A Utopia Where The Problems Are Not Fixed" opened at Thinkspace Gallery in California in October 2020. 

He has also been in several group shows. Most recently in 2021, the 150th edition of the Amsterdam Royal Palace Painting Prize Show, taking 1st place in the public prize. Other noteble group shows include, Honolulu Museum Of Art 2018 and Museum of Art & History in Lancaster 2019

His first ever solo show "Europe or nothing”. Was a multi-media exhibition that gave insight into the day to day life of migrants trying to cross the border into Europe. The exhibition included paintings, photography, installations, a short documentary and a series of poems from Mariboudou Keita, a migrant & writer from West Africa.

A growing aspect to his practice, and the focus during his MFA program, was writing & directing short films. Recently finishing his second short film titled "It's good to have you here". He is now working on writing and producing longer film/series screenplays. Along with a new painting series.