Current Residents Juliana Irene Smith
-
Juliana Irene Smith, Exhibition Poster for Who's Your Daddy, 2026
-
Juliana Irene Smith, Good Feelings Every Day (Book), 2025
-
Juliana Irene Smith, Good Feelings Every Day (Book), 2025
Smith is a California-born, half Iranian artist, mother, and activist based in Finland. She holds a BA in Photography from Parsons School of Design in New York and an MA in Public Art from the HSLU in Switzerland.
She has lived and worked in South Africa, Palestine, and Switzerland, Recent exhibitions include Summer Rain at Kunsthalle Helsinki, Scaredy Cat Boo! at Photographic Centre Peri, Turku, Saggy Wednesday at Verkligheten, Umeå and Who’s Your Daddy at Titanik, Turku.
In 2025, Utu press published her first book, GOOD FEELINGS EVERY DAY, a finalist for the Finnish Photo Book of the year.
My practice draws on personal narrative and feminist critique, often using humor to address identity, gender-based violence, and recovery. At HIAP, I am developing a solo exhibition titled Final Girl, opening in October at SIC Gallery in Helsinki. I will produce an immersive space with textile sculptures, video, and sound. Referencing the horror trope, the work explores survival, emerging from darkness, confronting childhood trauma in California, and claiming myself as the hero of my own story fully and unapologetically.