As a child, Cedric Smith loved Western movies. Seeing cowboys conquer the terrain on majestic horses made him want to ride alongside them. But in those films—and largely across pop culture—he never saw Black people. As an artist, he aims to address that historic lack of representation. In his color-saturated acrylic and oil paintings, for instance, Smith re-creates advertisements for the likes of whiskey and high-end fashion brands with Black people. And he plays with Southern
