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Siana Smith
Siana earned her MFA in fine art painting from California College of the Arts, San Francisco, in 2021. She completed her first year of MFA at San Francisco Art Institute. Her paintings have been shown at The De Young Museum of San Francisco, Triton Museum of Santa Clara, CA, Haggin Museum in Stockton, CA, NUMU in Los Gatos, CA, New York Academy of Art, Diego Rivera Gallery of SFAI, Wattis Institute of CCA, and other galleries in San Francisco Bay Area. Siana has a passion for public art and community service. She painted murals and utility boxes in San Francisco, Saratoga, and San Jose, CA. Siana is a signature member of American Women Artists (AWA). She is also a member of The Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art (NCWCA). She currently serves on the Saratoga Public Art Committee.
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Artist Statement:
“My art practice stems from my perspective on the world as a woman artist, a mother, a wife, a consumer, and an immigrant. Growing up in the 1970s in China, I emigrated to America, became an engineer, and raised a family. I started art later in life while I began the journey to know myself. My paintings express my feelings through capturing objects that belong, conceal and reveal, and moments in the life of interaction or solitude. I am curious about human emotions and relationships with things, with each other, and with the environment. Exploring the commodities that once were the reckoning of my misplaced yearning for love and belonging, I symbolize women’s accessories through scale, color, and detailed rendering. Beyond the usefulness, these objects are the reification of sentience we carry and encounter. My artworks ask viewers to confront objects of aesthetic desire in a more complex way, overlaying the banal innocence of the ‘pretty’ with a darker social and psychological context. Nowadays, as we turn to machines for convenience of life, physical needs, and emotional companionship, the virtual world becomes our real world. Yet, I wonder how technology as a new commodity permeates and affects individuals deeply as well as society and the environment as a whole. Is life better now?”