Maya Smith is a South Carolina–based portrait artist and illustrator whose vibrant, expressive work celebrates the beauty, strength, and individuality of people of color. Since earning her BFA in Illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 2006, she has built a body of work that challenges stereotypes and invites meaningful dialogue.
For nearly two decades, Maya has worked as a freelance artist, educator, and exhibitor. She has painted commissioned portraits for clients including the Morehouse College Alumni Association and Danielle Belton, former Editor-in-Chief of HuffPost, and created illustrations for EdVenture Children’s Museum, TNT’s The Alienist, and Academy Award–winning director Steve McQueen’s film Widows. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at The New York Public Library holds her work, and it has been exhibited in Unveiling Visions: The Alchemy of the Black Imagination and Pablo and Romy: Culture, Color, and Cubism at The Mint Museum.
As an educator, Maya has taught through the Sumter Art Gallery, the Columbia Museum of Art, SCAD’s Summer Swarm Sessions, and the Girl Scouts of South Carolina, as well as in private lessons.
Maya is currently pursuing an MFA at the University of South Carolina, where she is expanding her practice in drawing and painting. Her work continues to affirm the beauty and resilience of underrepresented communities and to offer audiences images they rarely see in mainstream media.