Black Heritage Night

Taylor Smalls is a contemporary palette knife painter based in Oakland, California. Her work studies the kaleidoscopic depth of black and brown skin through the layering of highly pigmented color. It celebrates the endless nuances of melanated womxn by amplifying and exaggerating the underlying tones in colored skins that are often depicted dulled down or neglected, much like the people who inhabit them. Her work aims to show womxn of color in a bold, proud, and celebratory light as depictions of strong melanated womxn are severely lacking in contemporary portraiture. Smalls has been working as a gynocentric painter since 2012, and continues to do so out of her West Oakland studio.

At its core, this painting centers Black women as forward-looking figures, bringing together traditional, hand-painted techniques with digital glitch and pixelation. The blending of portraiture and digital elements creates a sense of movement and change, rather than a fixed or nostalgic image and, can be seen on her website taylorsmalls.com . In doing so, the work places Black identity as visible, evolving, and central to the future of culture—much like the game of baseball itself, which continues to grow, adapt, and redefine itself over time.