About the Artist

Michelle V Smith

Michelle Smith, also known as Sugar Cadavers, is a Philadelphia-born multimedia surrealist artist currently based in Durham, North Carolina. A graduate of Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, Michelle earned a BA in Visual Studies with a Community Arts certificate in 2018. During her studies, she spent a transformative semester in Venice, Italy, where the city’s vibrant glass traditions and rich artistic history left a lasting imprint on her creative practice.

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While in Philadelphia, Michelle found her artistic voice within the city’s eclectic underground music and arts scene, balancing her deep connection to the natural world with the raw energy of urban life. Her early work emerged through live painting performances at music events—ranging from intimate and often grimy basement shows, dive bars and clubs to sprawling outdoor installations at music festivals, campgrounds and fairgrounds. These formative, synergistic experiences helped shape her meticulous, frenetic style of maximalist impressionist painting by learning to react in the moment to changing environmental factors and responding to how they influenced each composition.

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Now based in Durham, Michelle creates enchanting, psychedelic art under the moniker Sugar Cadavers. Her work explores themes of nostalgia, obsession, and the interconnectedness of the natural and spiritual worlds, often employing intricate mark-making and a striking blacklight-reactive color palette.

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In recent years, Michelle has expanded her practice to include stained glass, hot glassblowing, flameworking, mixed-media collage and sculpture. Her passion for glass—first sparked during her time in Venice—has since flourished, inspiring her to bridge the gap between her various mediums. Michelle is currently pursuing further education in hot glass. She has recently competed glass internships at Starworks in Star North Carolina and First City Community Arts Center in Pensacola Florida. Working from her studio at Liberty Arts, Michelle continues to push the boundaries of her craft, incorporating 3D elements and immersive installations into her ever-evolving body of work.