KAMOY SMALLING  Kamoy Smalling (b. 1988, Bronx, NY) is a New York-based artist whose work explores the construction and deconstruction of the self through the lenses of race, femininity, and otherness. Raised in a conservative, insular religious community and bred in the orthodoxy of capitalistic infatuation, Kamoy’s works are heavily inspired by her personal history of oscillating between identity portals and ways of being. Common themes examined include the fabrication of authenticity, the commoditization of identity, dynamic nominalism, and the juxtaposition of normalized notions of success and inadequacy. Kamoy’s pieces seek to offer viewers a respite from the trite norms of categorical being.   

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Kamoy’s visual language references a broad range of influences including the Neo-Impressionism of George Seurat, the Mannerism of El Greco the Surrealism of Salvador Dali, the raw and unsettling imagery of Francis Bacon, and the techniques of Dutch Old Masters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer.

 

Kamoy is a self-taught artist who completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology and History of Science from Harvard University before receiving her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.