Matt Smiley

Matt Smiley is a Canadian-born, Los Angeles–based contemporary artist and filmmaker working across neo-expressionism, symbolism, and immersive installation. His practice explores memory, nostalgia, and collective experience through layered imagery, automatic writing, and emotionally charged visual language that merges pop culture iconography with deeper social and psychological narratives.

Smiley first gained international recognition as the director of Highway of Tears (2014), a critically acclaimed documentary examining the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls along Highway 16 in northern British Columbia. Narrated by Nathan Fillion, the film premiered at the TIFF Human Rights Watch Film Festival and contributed to a broader national dialogue surrounding the issue. He later directed For Love (2022), narrated by Shania Twain, a documentary exploring Indigenous child welfare in Canada, released on Netflix Canada and Amazon Prime.

In parallel with his filmmaking career, Smiley developed a distinctive visual art practice rooted in symbolism, instinctive mark-making, and cultural memory. His early solo exhibition Dreams Fizzle into Space introduced his hand-painted “Smiley Soup Can” series, establishing a visual...

2025 "Time to be Smiley" Time to be Happy Gallery, New York
2025 "Down the Rabbit Hole" Mondrian Hotel Los Angeles
2024 "Love, Nostalgia, & the Tempest of my Mind (Residency) 1 Hotel West Hollywood, CA (Sep. 5 - Nov. 5)
2023 “Emotions: Work in Progress” (Residency) 1 Hotel West Hollywood, CA (3 months)
2019 REFRESH Art Exhibit at the Mondrian Hotel, Los Angeles, CA (6 months)
2018 Dear Diary…, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Nexus Earth Art Exposition, The Aspen Institute, Aspen, CO
2017 Dreams Fizzle into Space, Los Angeles, CA

Selected group Exhibitions

2024 Aspen Snowball, Charity Fundraiser, Aspen, CO
2023 Fly Me to the Moon, Hollywood, CA (Mr. Brainwash, Banksy, Punk Me Tender +++)
2022 Boo2Bullying, Los Angeles, CA (SLS Hotel)
2022 No Kid Hungry, Los Angeles, CA (Hosted by Vanessa Hudgens)
2020 Conscious Shift, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Phase One LA, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA
2019 LA Art Show, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Wearable Art Gala, Los Angeles (Hosted by Tina Knowles)
2018 The Other Art Fair Presented by Saatchi Art, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Art Palm Springs, Palm Springs, CA
2018 LA Art Show, Los Angeles, CA
2018 UNICEF Next Gen Art Party, Venice, CA
2017 LIFT Art: Communities, Neuehouse, Los Angeles, CA
2017 UNICEF Nex...