BIO

Aili Schmeltz is a Los Angeles based painter and sculptor who works with a range of materials including ceramic, wood, paint, and textiles. Her work is informed by environmental, philosophical, and architectural histories. Recent series of works include mixed media textile paintings that honor women who have furthered equality and justice in a wide range of communities, and a series of Cairn ceramic sculptures that utilize modular building and historic architectural languages to create futuristic monument/ relics.

Solo museum exhibitions include Espronceda Center for Art and Culture, Barcelona, Spain (2017); Tomorrowland at Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, Arizona (2011); The Magic City at Locust Projects, Miami (2008); Gods Eye at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, Nebraska (2008); and Storm Tracking at Gardiner Art Gallery, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma (2008). Her work has been included in group museum exhibitions including Step and Repeat, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles (2025); Formation, Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, California (2024); Color. Theory. & B/W, Sarasota Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida (2019); Shady Acres, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City (2019); and Interstitial, Pasadena Museum of California Art (2017), among others. A number of solo and group commercial gallery exhibitions throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan have featured her work. Schmeltz has been awarded grants such as the Pollock Krasner Grant (2009), California Community Foundation Grant (2013), and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant (2011), and her work is held in an expanding list of private collections. Public collections include Stanford University (2026), Google (2023), and the US Department of State, Art in Embassies Program (2025). Schmeltz earned her MFA from the University of Arizona, a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute, and currently teaches at Otis College of Art and Design.

Schmeltz has served as a Professor for over twenty years at public and private institutions such as Otis College of Art and Design, Santa Monica College, Los Angeles Mission College, Los Angeles Valley College, Centro De Estudios Superiores De Diseño (CEDIM), Mount Saint Mary's University, Prescott College, and Indiana University.