Eli Smith, artist

Eli was born in Perth in 1973 and completed a Diploma in Art and Design at CMC TAFE in 1996 before graduating from Curtin University of Technology in 2000 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. From 2000-05 Eli and his partner travelled in Asia and around Australia, ending up in Melbourne where he soon began work at the Ian Potter Museum, the University of Melbourne. Here he worked as a technical intern in the Collection Management Department, which offered a perfect blend of his two areas of interest; art and construction. In 2005 Eli moved back to Perth and since then has shown work in group shows at Elements Gallery (Subiaco), Emerge (North Perth), Bunbury Regional Gallery and Fremantle Arts Centre, and held his first solo show at Emerge in May 2007. In 2007 Eli won the inaugural Perrine Contemporary Art Award at Greenhill Galleries, Perth and is currently working on a solo exhibition set to provoke an analysis of the viewer’s preconceived responses to potentially controversial imagery.