Visiting Harold Smith’s Artist Talk

On Saturday, March 14th, Studios Inc. Alum Harold Smith gave an artist talk at Sherry Leedy Contemporary to celebrate his show “We Shall Not Be Moved.”

Featuring 38 vibrant works on canvas, the gallery space sings with the experiences of Harold and members of his community growing up in Kansas City, Kansas. Harold opens the talk by giving the floor to jazz vocalist Eboni Fondren, who performs a rendition of “We Shall Not Be Moved,” a nod to the exhibition’s title. Fondren invites the audience to join in on the final verse, and as the low hum of warm voices fills the room, I begin to understand what this show means for Smith, and what it means to his community. 

Harold moves throughout the room, speaking about different sections of the paintings. Some are inspired by Blaxploitation films of the 1970s, what Harold prefers to call “Black artistic liberation films”, while others come from his Blacktacular series, works inspired by Black culture and translated through sayings and phrases. The self-taught artist masterfully wields palette knives, scraping and spreading acrylic paint across the canvas in every direction. His use of color is intuitive, with some of his paintings made with a darker, more somber palette of black, blue, and brown, and others utilizing neon pinks and oranges.

Smith ends the talk with a reminder: “Life is going to happen, so hang onto your joy.” The sentiment echoes the song performed by Eboni Fondren: “We’re fighting for our freedom, we shall not be moved. Like a tree that’s planted by the water, we shall not be moved.”

We Shall Not Be Moved will be on view from February 6 – March 21, 2026.