Pride and Unity at Ki Smith Gallery

Thanks to our featured sponsor, ABC Fitness!

Kick off Pride 2024 by celebrating unity and solidarity with the global LGBTQI+ community!

Join SafePlace International Executive Director Rachael LeClear and Board Chair Maggie Lower in welcoming friends and advocates in collaboration with Ki Smith Gallery, featuring guest artists and spinning by Keith Shocklee, co-founder of Public Enemy, to celebrate the resilience and strength of LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers.

Meet SafePlace International

Launched in 2018 as a registered 501c3, SafePlace International (SPI) focuses on amplifying marginalized voices of the LGBTQI+ community around the world to build networks of safety and inclusivity filled with hope and joy.

With global and local partners, SPI provides safety and stability for LGBTQI+ persons that are forcibly displaced. SPI’s daily operations provide access to safe housing, food, supplies, and life-saving information to remote corners of the world.

The Dream Academy, SPI’s 10-week intensive virtual course led entirely by graduates turned team members provides a path to healing and growth. Its holistic curriculum helps new leaders turn shame and trauma into power and determination as they rise into positions of influence in their local institutions and communities.The goal? To create an international human network establishing safe places for our community’s most vulnerable.

To learn more about SafePlace International, visit safeplaceinternational.org or find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube.

Meet Keith Shocklee

Keith Shocklee is a hip hop producer, DJ and co-founder of Public Enemy and production company The Bomb Squad.

A top producer in the rap world, Shocklee appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine's “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” for “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back,” and “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” for “Bring the Noize” and “Fight the Power.” No small feat in the midst of today's information overload. Public Enemy is also a recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Shocklee has produced top-charting albums for artists such as Public Enemy, Ice Cube, LL Cool J, Bell Biv DeVoe and Third Bass, and acted as Executive Producer for Xzibit’s “Full Circle.”

Well-known for his remix artistry, Keith has "re-produced" for top acts including Janet Jackson, Run DMC, Sinéad O’Connor, Peter Gabriel, The Neville Brothers, Paula Abdul, and Ziggy Marley.

Shocklee's music contributes to the success of many motion picture soundtracks. His work is heard in hit movies such as Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” and “He’s Got Game” as well as "Jarhead," "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," and "Jackass: The Movie."

Meet Ki Smith Gallery and Our Exhibiting Artists

Ki Smith Gallery disrupts industry practice through carefully-selected artists that create diverse representation of backgrounds, methods and aesthetics. Ki Smith Gallery supports artists from conception to execution, encouraging exploration of materials and processes. We pride ourselves in understanding artists’ intentions while considering their personal and emotional connection to the work.

The gallery works closely with collectors to create meaningful and unique collections. Ki Smith Gallery considers other auction houses and galleries including larger trends and conversations but considers themselves to be peers to artists, patrons and friends that are active parts of the community.

Ki Smith Gallery is compelled by a deep love and respect for art. They strive to consistently search for imaginative ways to share art with others.

Caslon Bevington is a multimedia artist whose work aims at visualizing the slippery relationship between physical and non-physical materiality. Caslon’s art examines image production and re-re-reproduction within a post-digital environment, exploring the visual semantics of internal spaces, glitching, and corrosion.

Recently Caslon’s practice has examined painting as influenced by a visual language rooted in digital materiality. Working within The Landscape as genre and perimeter to investigate translation of digital perceptibility into paint.

Through the use of collage, painting, and photo based media, Craig White (born 1994) investigates the nature of perception and how one’s own personal experiences are inextricably linked to their understanding of the world around them.

Employing portraits, themes, and symbols borrowed from recontextualized sources, White explores how these factors shape contemporary identity and invites viewers to create new ways of viewing both themselves and our collective history.