Solo exhibition by Kaili Smith

Contemporary classical

In the museum’s historic period rooms, full of detailed wall decorations and ornaments, where you might expect to see portraits of Amsterdam’s historic civic elite, you will instead encounter contemporary works. Kaili’s large-scale contemporary portraits create a striking contrast against the classical surroundings. In An Ode To Creativity, Canals & Family, the artist shows how families and friends shape his world.

Encounters by the canals

Alongside a series of existing portraits of families from Amsterdam-Noord, the exhibition presents an entirely new series of portraits created especially for the occasion. In these works, Smith brings together three groups of creatives: musicians, comedians, and writers. His paintings depict them meeting at night by the bridges spanning Amsterdam’s canals – fleeting yet recognizable moments for anyone who lives and works in the city.

About the artist

Kaili Smith was born in the Netherlands in 1995 and grew up in Australia. Over the past decade, he has divided his time between Amsterdam and New York, two cities that have played an important role in his development as an artist. In his work, Smith explores the lived experiences of young people in the city and the dynamics of family structures. To describe this practice, he introduced the term ‘Globalized Inner Cityizm’: an artistic investigation into how different cultures, social environments and personal experiences come together in the lives of young people in the contemporary city.

Events

During Kaili Smith’s exhibition, the Grachtenmuseum will present a programme of events. Each of the new paintings will be accompanied by a public programme, including a comedy show and a live musical performance. Keep an eye on the website for the latest updates.