Image-making that inverts our expectations
This week we welcome Khaila Batts, a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores Black identity, perception and the ways race and memory intersect with environment and technology. Working across digital collage and oil painting, Batts raises questions about how identity is constructed, flattened and reimagined in both historical and contemporary contexts. Rooted in her Black American heritage, her work blends archival materials and contemporary techniques to create immersive pieces that bridge history, memory and diasporic identity.
Raised in Brooklyn and based in New York City, she holds an MFA in Studio Arts from the City College of New York. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including solo and group exhibitions at Lake George Arts Project, Westbeth Gallery, Amos Eno Gallery and Tafaria Castle in Kenya. Batts has participated in residencies such as MASS MoCA, Wassaic Project and the Monson Arts Residency, and has been featured in publications including Stepmom Magazine and AL-Tiba9 Contemporary Art.
In a statement, Batts wrote: “My work reimagines the Black body as both alienated and autonomous, as distant yet undeniably present. I see my paintings as portals, inviting viewers to confront and reflect on the complexities of identity, violence and belonging.
“Through compositions often rendered in serene blues and organic brushstrokes, I transform moments of emotional turbulence into meditative visual experiences. Central to my practice is the use of color inversion, a technique that strips away conventional associations tied to race, allowing individuality to take center stage. This process challenges perceptions, urging audiences to rethink how marginalized bodies are seen and understood.
“I also incorporate interactive elements, encouraging viewers to engage with my work through their cellular devices. This interplay between analog and digital mirrors the tensions of contemporary life, where reality and media-driven narratives constantly intertwine.
“My art is rooted in the everyday, in family photographs, the textures of New York’s urban landscape and the shared memory of Black communities. These familiar elements are transformed into otherworldly forms, creating a sense of nostalgia that is both intimate and universal. My canvases become spaces where conflicting emotions, love and violence, alienation and agency converge. I aim to invite viewers to linger in that ambiguity, to discover beauty and meaning in the unresolved.”
