The MassArt Graduate Programs and MFA Fine Arts Low-Residency welcome Siena Smith as a speaker of the MFA Summer 2026 Lecture Series in the Design and Media Center Lecture Hall on Thursday, July 23 at 1:00pm.

Siena Smith (b. New York, NY) is an artist who works with drawing, painting, collage, and Jacquard weaving to process the complexities of everyday emotions, memories and struggles centering Black womanhood and culture. She earned her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in Textiles and MFA at School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Fiber and Material Studies.

She is interested in how repetition, tactility, material and rhythm of 2-D and textile mediums carry the essence of Black Diasporic personal, collective and spiritual histories and futures. Her work has been exhibited at MASS Gallery, NADA Miami, George Washington Carver Museum, RISD Museum and White Cube. Recent exhibitions include Curated Spotlight at NADA Miami (2022, curated by Joanna Bellorado-Samuels), Heartstrings at MASS Gallery (2025, curated by Taylor Danielle Davis) and Art & Design from 1900s to Now at RISD Museum (2025).

Her work is held in public and private collections, including TD Bank and RISD Museum. She is a recipient of the MacColl Johnson 2026 Fellowship and Boston Ujima Project Arts & Cultural Organizing Fellowship (2025-27). In addition, her work has appeared in publications including Sotheby’s, BmoreArt and The New York Times. She currently lives and works in Providence, RI

Questions? Contact gradprogram@massart.edu.

This event is free and open to public.

Image: S. Smith, Expanding...Bombastic Side Eye, 2025