Keri Smith is a Canadian conceptual artist and author of several bestselling books and apps about creativity including Wreck This Journal (Penguin), This is Not a Book (Penguin), How to be an Explorer of the World -the Portable Life/Art Museum,(Penguin), Mess: A Manual of Accidents and Mistakes (Penguin), The Guerrilla Art Kit (Princeton Architectural Press), Finish This Book (Penguin), and The Pocket Scavenger (Penguin).
Keri conducts workshops based on her books and recently taught a class in conceptual illustration at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, in Vancouver Canada. The main focus of her work/research is on creating what the writer Umberto Eco called “Open works”, pieces that are completed by the reader/user. In 2012 she created a public art installation for the exhibition Urban Play, in Copenhagen Denmark entitled The Society for Exploratory Research. In 2013 Keri was invited to be a “Resident Thinker” for the art piece “Nowhere Island” by artist Alex Hartley for the Cultural Olympiad, along with Yoko Ono and several other interesting thinkers. Keri is a consultant for the Center for Artistic Activism. Her Pocket Scavenger App won Best Nonfiction Adult app at the 2014 Digital Book Awards.
As a free lance illustrator she has worked for a wide variety of clientsworldwide. Most recently Random House, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Ford Motor Co., the Boston Globe, Galison/Mudpuppy Press, and Hallmark. In the last few years she has given lectures on a variety of topics for The Learning, Arts & the Brain Summit at Johns Hopkins University, the How Design Conference, the OntarioGraphic Artist’s Assocation, UC Davis, and schools across North America. She has been featured in How, Step by Step, Print, Bust, Wired and many more.
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