Ka'ila Farrell-Smith

Ka’ila Farrell-Smith (Klamath Modoc) is a painter and mixed-media artist based in Modoc Point, Oregon. Her work engages with inter-tribal native communities, reflecting the mixed and sometimes complicated heritage of multi-ethnic and indigenous families living in a post-colonial world. Her paintings and installations are deeply symbolic and frequently abstract, employing dynamic mark-making and textural explorations. Farrell-Smith is one of the directors of the Signal Fire artist residency program, and is a professor of Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University. Farrell-Smith has attended artist residencies at Caldera, Djerassi, Ucross, and the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) among others. Farrell-Smith holds a BFA in Painting from the Pacific Northwest College of Art, and an MFA in Contemporary Art Practices Studio from Portland State University.