Ever since Keith Allen Smith was a child he loved to draw. His mother recalls him being two-years-old and drawing on walls with crayons. Originally from Los Angeles, Keith [at the age of 5] and his family moved to Iowa.
Their move to Iowa was due to his parents splitting up. Throughout his childhood his father began sending him letters from a distance. His father would receive pictures of his children and he’d send back a perfect sketch of them.
This began to inspire Keith to pursue art on a deeper level. At a young age all he wanted to do was draw. When he was 11-years-old he entered a fire prevention poster contest, which he won third.
“Ever since then I wanted to do art for real. I just started drawing my friends I would just draw everything. I would just draw draw draw.”
Keith went on to pursue a higher education and moved to Chicago, where he went on to attend the Illinois Institute of Art to study graphic design. He eventually ended up working as a graphic designer but disliked it, although he learned to have fun with it.
Keith always found a niche in skateboarding. Since both graffiti and skate culture are closely knit, he found himself amongst graffiti artists. Although, at the time graffiti didn’t interest him, he wasn’t far from it becoming his passion. During that time he also became affiliated with the crew over at Uprise Skateshop.
Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t able to become part of the team. In order to break the barrier and become closer to them, he created a series of ads called “The Streets are our Jungle” which he wheat pasted all round the city.
“I did it without them knowing and then I showed them. ‘Hey I did this for a graphic design project hope you don’t mind.' They thought it was awesome and they were hyped about it. I go off the Banksy shit where its like, ‘it’s always easier to get forgiveness than permission.’”
This sparked an interest in Keith, as he begun to dive deep into street art. Throughout college he began to wheat paste posters alongside creating custom skate decks. At some point he began to drill the custom skate decks on to wooden panels throughout the city.
During this time he looked up to graffiti artist such as “Sentrock” and “JC Rivera.” Alongside Matthew Hoffman [custodian of You Are Beautiful.] Keith ended up working for Matthew and learned a lot from.
“He gave me my first set of spray paint cans. I was finding gigs because I was associated with him.”
During the two and half years Keith worked as an assistant to Hoffman, he developed his personal brand “Afrokilla,” which is what he is now known as.
“I was building my thing up and working full-time for Matthew, it was grind central.”
In 2017 he quit his job and went all in on his artistry. That same year he hosted his first solo gallery at Grassroots Chicago.
“My number one inspirational street artist to this date Jeff Zimmerman came. I didn’t even meet him before and he came to my show. I was like, ‘dude are you Jeff Zimmerman? Why are you here?’”
June of that year he was commissioned by Chicago Segway Tour to do work on the open space at Navy Pier. From there on the rest is history, as he began to make a name for himself as Afrokilla. Instead of looking up to his idols, he now competes against them in Secret Walls: Paint Battles.
You can now find Keith’s work all around the city of Chicago. He has made a name for himself and has earned respect amongst the art community.
“Keith is constantly creating and growing as an artist. One of the brightest and most humble creatives I have met and worked with. Also, his growth as an artist is insane. His work ethic and dedication to art is unmatched.”
Fine Artist, Producer and Fabricator.
Keith has many commissioned murals and paintings around Chicago in places such as the Riverwalk or Google’s office in Fulton Market. His art is not only now nation wide, but worldwide since he had the opportunity to paint a restaurant in Greece.
This year he plans on continuing to grow as Afrokilla and having his art pop-up at major music festivals across the country. Another project he will be working on is a clothing capsule collection. One of his biggest projects thus far will begin this summer, this mural will be his biggest to date and will be visible from one of the main interstates that passes through Chicago.