Taylor Smalls is a contemporary palette knife painter based in Oakland, California, whose practice celebrates the depth, resilience, and beauty of Black and brown skin. Since 2012, she has centered her work on amplifying the kaleidoscopic nuances of melanated womxn, countering their frequent erasure or misrepresentation in art and media. Through layers of highly pigmented color and an exploration of water as both metaphor and material, her paintings embody fluidity, strength, and rooted pride. Inspired by the intersection of identity, history, and resilience, Smalls draws on the rich traditions of Black communities while pushing the boundaries of contemporary portraiture, offering images of unapologetic agency and self-expression from her West Oakland studio.
