nikkolas smith
Everything right now, it just moves so fast. I found that, really, Twitter is honestly one of the best resources to try and stay up to date with so many things that are going on because I’m connected with so many different activists across the country just through Artivism. They (activists) will bring to light some cases and they may be very specific to an area, but a lot of it is really just keeping a pulse with what’s happening through Twitter, blacklivesmatter.com, change.org, where they’re dedicated to highlighting these issues.
As an artist dedicated to starting important conversations about important issues, it has to be difficult keeping up with all the injustices occurring everyday. How do you stay knowledgeable about these controversies?
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Photo Courtesy of Vanessa Crocini
Nikkolas Smith is a concept artist, children's book author and film illustrator based in Los Angeles, California. As an illustrator of color, he creates captivating art that sparks viral conversations and propels meaningful change. Nikkolas has also created movie posters for Hollywood blockbusters such as Black Panther, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Dear White People. With over 141K Instagram followers, his work has been recognized by CNN, TIME Magazine, ABC, The New York Times, Buzzfeed, and many more.
It is a little ironic that sometimes the people who need to hear your message the most are also the people most unwilling to hear it. How do you approach this seemingly impossible issue?
In a way, it’s the art’s responsibility to reach those people. It’s a test. Even if you have a different viewpoint, did this piece make you feel something? I created this one piece of Martin Luther King Jr. in a hoodie as a response to the murder of Trayvon Martin and the fact that his killer was not found guilty. It ended up being shared frequently in conservative circles and actually caused a lot of outrage. I was then put on CNN the next day to explain the piece of what it meant. The whole piece centers around irony. The whole point is that the piece speaks to Dr. King’s dream of not letting anyone be judged by their outward appearance. I’m sure that there were some conservative folks who looked at the piece after the fact and realized the ironic twist: “I had the reaction that I judged Dr. King as a thug just because of his hoodie.” Just because someone is wearing a hoodie and has black skin doesn’t make them dangerous. Art is really kind of like a social experiment in that sense asking “What does it make you feel?” A lot of the time art is to put you in someone else’s shoes. I created a piece of this woman named Rosa who was seeking asylum and at the time Trump was painting these individuals as criminals. But the piece I made was just Rosa holding her baby and just staring into your soul. You know, what do you feel? What do you feel is you don’t see the humanity in this person?
Created by Nikkolas Smith
One of your most memorable works for us is “Meet As Many,” which encourages people to embrace novel and unfamiliar people and ideas. How has this philosophy influenced your own mindset and lifestyle?
Part of this piece was a reflection of my journey in life. I grew up in Houston, Texas. A lot of the time it’s a pretty conservative place. There’s a lot of people in Texas who can live in a bubble and who, a lot of the time, may not want to view other viewpoints. I grew up there but went to college in Virginia then I moved to California after graduating and have been here 11, 12 years. Working in corporate America, I ended up going to China, and all these other places. After I left CA, I’ve been able to see so many different cultures. I honestly feel like if anybody has the opportunity to see the corners of this earth and all of the different people in this world, you can’t help but just have a greater appreciation of human life. Your fears will start to go away, your fears of other cultures, religions. There’s so many fears that go away when you meet people who didn’t grow up like you. It really hit home when I started to work with people. Even in the most segregated and conservative cities in America, there’s still other people right down the street. People who didn’t grow up like you, who don’t look like you, who don’t have the same ideas. We’re taught to not go into those neighborhoods, or don’t associate with those people. It’s like that in LA--people think of Hollywood or Beverly Hills, but they wouldn’t go down to Watts or South Central. But some of those neighborhoods in Watts just have some of the most extraordinary little kids who are just full of joy and life and love and who just know how to live in a community. There is no silo thinking, no dividers, they’re all just in there together. There’s places in every city where you can go and meet great folks. Explore and explore as far as you can.
In your TEDxWatts talk, you said that “as a concept artist, I create what I want to see.” If we could look 5 years into the future, what would you wish to see in America?
Oh man. That’s one of the things that I do love about concept art. If something is broken, I can just paint what it looks like just fixed completely beautiful. That might look like the streets of America with no homeless people. You know we are going through a pandemic and a lot of cities figured out how to house the homeless fast because they had to. It’s like “why couldn't they do this before?” Just things like more accountability from a lot of these police officers who feel like they can get away from murder. Justice being served as much as possible. I would just say maybe some sort of fair and just way of allocating resources. In 5 years it might look like "hey these police departments don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to put towards riot gear". Maybe that money can be going towards healthcare, the people, housing. Right now, in cities like LA, a fair chunk of this money is going to the police and it’s like “Why?” So they can just keep doing what they’re doing right now and just put on riot gear and attack? There needs to be a lot more balance, it’s really imbalanced right now.
If you could interview one person, who would it be and what would you ask them?
Jesus — What do you think about the fact that people portray you in this way right now? That conservative America portrays you in this way of being someone who would close the doors to the poor and the hungry and what would you in this moment right now?
Interview edited for clarity and length. See more of Nikkolas's work at www.nikkolas.com.