Cauleen Smith

(b. 1967)

Cauleen Smith’s work explores Black futurity, technology, and collective imagination. Drawing from Afrofuturist literature, American avant-garde film of the 1960s and 1970s, and jazz history, Smith works across film, video, performance, and installation. Although now based in Los Angeles, Smith lived in Chicago during most of the Obama presidency. She was a resident at the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, Experimental Sound Studio, and the University of Chicago Arts Incubator. Influential Chicago jazz composer, poet, and philosopher Sun Ra has featured centrally in Smith’s work. Her 2012 MCA Chicago exhibition A Star Is a Seed drew from extensive research on the musician, and her screen-printed wallpaper 17 at the Hyde Park Arts Center was based on his writings and music.