Talia Smith is an artist, writer and curator originally from Auckland who is currently based in Sydney.

Since completing a Bachelor of Design and Visual Arts (Photography) at Unitec in 2012, Talia has exhibited nationally and internationally and continued to develop her passion for engaging with the arts through a number of roles and curatorial projects, some of which include; board member at Runway, founder and Co-Director of artist run initiative Cold Cuts, 2017’s emerging curator at Firstdraft, Educator at Campbelltown Arts Centre, Co-Curatorial Manager at Gaffa Gallery, Australian Page Curator for Urbanautica, Co-Director and Founder of Transit Projects, Assistant Arts & Events

Talia’s photographic and video practice examines the marks and traces left from human interaction on spaces and landscape, with a focus on the everyday spaces that are often passed by unnoticed. This raises questions surrounding the temporal possibilities of presence and absence that are revealed in the transitory nature of the space. Talia is also one half of the collaborative art project called Single Brown Female, alongside Leilani Heather. This project explores the humour of the duo’s mutual mistaken identity, and finds inspiration through shared everyday experiences with a view to subverting notions of race, identity and the gaze.

Lead us outside, lead us out quietly examines the often overlooked spaces of failed development sites and industrial areas. Comprised of photography, video and a publication of personal accounts, the collection of work is a fragmented archive of the bygone and imaginary. Many of the sites in the images have slipped into economic decline are all at once desolate, extant, and unglamourous. The documentation of these spaces is an attempt to reclaim and salvage potential histories and functions, that while in the throws ruin reveal a resonance and transitory nature that pulls.

Talia has exhibited in a number of group and solo exhibitions including: Experiments in Distance, Bus Projects, Melbourne, 2017; Free View, Kings ARI, Melbourne, 2016; Plants and Rags, Te Tuhi Billboard Project, Auckland, 2015; Solo Sausage, Studio One Toi Tū, Auckland, 2015; The View, Wellington Street Projects, Sydney, 2015; Lay of the Land, Papakura Art Gallery, Auckland, 2015, Breathing Room, Gaffa, Sydney, 2015; The Break-Up, 107 Projects, Sydney, 2014;  OffStage: Whau Arts Festival, Auckland, 2014; Making Visible, Franklin Arts Centre, Auckland 2014; W e l c o m e, Single Brown Female, Artspace, Auckland, 2014; Awkward Feelings, Single Brown Female, George Fraser Gallery, Auckland, 2014; Lead us outside, lead us out quietly, Enjoy Gallery, Wellington, 2014; Leilani Heather & Talia Smith present: SINGLE BROWN FEMALE, Pearce Gallery, Auckland, 2014; National Contemporary Art Awards, Waikato Museum, Hamilton, 2014; Recent Auckland Photography, North Art, Auckland, 2013; Land/Scape, Papakura Art Gallery, Auckland, 2012; This Must be the Place, St Paul Street Gallery, Auckland, 2012;