Laylah Ali (born 1968)Baker, Alex (2007) ''Laylah Ali: Typology''. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. p. 47. is an American contemporary

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

. She is known for paintings in which ambiguous race relations are depicted with a graphic clarity and cartoon strip format. She lives in

Williamstown, Massachusetts Williamstown is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. Located in Berkshire County, the town is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts metropolitan statis ...

, and is a professor at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

Early life and education

In her youth, Ali originally intended to be a lawyer or a doctor. Ali received her B.A. degree (English and studio art) from

, Williamstown, MA in 1991. She participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program at the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

, New York City in 1992, and completed a residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME in 1993. Ali received her M.F.A. degree in 1994 from the

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts is a part of Washington University in St. Louis. The Sam Fox School was founded in 2006 by uniting the academic units of Architecture and Art with the university's Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. It is d ...

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

Work

In Ali's earlier work, she would draw or paint something violent. She focused more on the action than the violence itself. In her current work, there is not a lot of focus on the act; she is more attentive to what happens before and after. Laylah's work had a unique feature of including a level of emotion. She uses bright colors and cartoons to portray current events and socio-political ideas. She uses this unique approach of not using a specific event, so the audience can think through the art and have their own perception. The works are small scale

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouach ...

paintings and drawings on paper. She is known to prepare for many months, planning out every detail so there is no room for mistakes. Ali's work is based on life experiences. Although one may not be able to tell, she says all of her work holds meaning and that what's in her mind transcends from her hands on paper. About the performative nature of her work, Ali says, "The paintings can be like crude stages or sets, the figures like characters in a play. I think of them equally as characters and figures." Ali's work included an artistic lens of caricature. According to Charlotte Seaman, "Ali’s work is not grounded in the academic tradition, however it is informed by the rich history of caricature, especially as humorous or mocking social commentary". Ali used a unique idea of caricature, Seaman states "Ali uses the visual language of cartoons, comics, and to some extent caricatures. Notably, though, her work is opposed to racial caricature in that it does not exaggerate features of an individual – rather the opposite: it turns individuals into signs or ciphers of generalized (though still racialized) human experience"

The Greenheads Series

The subject of Ali's most well-known gouache paintings are ''Greenheads–'' characters designed to minimize, eliminate and interrogate categorical differences of gender, height, age, and in some ways race. Ali created more than 80 of these paintings between 1996 and 2005. Ali drew on imagery and topics from newspapers, such as images of protest signs or world leaders hugging, but tweaked the stories in order to create something distant and new. Ali designed the characters and images to be specific and yet vague. They have meaning from Ali herself but the viewer brings their own references to interpret the image as well. Ali designed the characters to look human-like but not quite human so that they would be removed from our world and social context. They have a socio-political meaning yet they exist outside of our world.

The Acephalous Series

Since 2015, Ali has been working on paintings she calls ''The Acephalous Series'', featuring figures described as gender conscious, potentially sexual or sexualized, some of which have racial characteristics and some of which do not have heads. "They are on an endless, determined trek, a multi-part journey," she says, "It has elements of a forced migration."

Collaborations

In 2002, the

Museum of Modern Art, New York The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, and includes over 200,000 works of arc ...

, commissioned Ali to create a wordless graphic novelette. The artist collaborated with dancer and choreographer Dean Moss at The Kitchen in 2005 and at

MASS MoCA The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing ...

in 2006 with ''figures on a field.'' They later premiered a performance at ''Some sweet day'' at MoMA, New York in 2012. ''John Brown Song!'' was an online project launched by the Dia Art Foundation in 2013. Ali's outdoor billboard project for ''Walker without Walls'' at the Walker Art Center was documented on season 3 of the PBS series Art21: Art in the Twenty-First Century.

Collections

Ali's works are included in the permanent collection of numerous public institutions, including the

Buffalo AKG Art Museum The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum located adjacent to Delaware Park-Front Park System, Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, New York, United States. The museum shows modern art a ...

, Buffalo, NY; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago;

RISD Museum The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum) is an art museum integrated with the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. The museum was co-founded with the school in 1877. It is the 20th-largest art m ...

, Providence, RI; the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

, Minneapolis, MN; and the Whitney Museum in New York City.

Exhibitions

Selected solo and group exhibitions

Laylah Ali has exhibited in both the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

(2003) and the

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...

(2004). Other exhibitions include: * 2024: ''Is anything the matter? Drawings by Laylah Ali,'' Marion Art Gallery, State University of New York at Fredonia, NY. January 23—April 14, 2024—traveling to University Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA. February 13—May 9, 2025;

Colby College Museum of Art The Colby College Museum of Art is an art museum on the campus of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1959 and now comprising five wings, nearly 8,000 works and more than 38,000 square feet of exhibition space, the Colby College Museu ...

, Waterville, ME. October 21—April 19, 2026 (solo & catalog) * 2021: ''Sweaty Concepts'', Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA * 2020: ''Never Done: 100 Years Of Women In Politics And Beyond'', Tang Teaching Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY * 2019: ''Laylah Ali: The Acephalous Series,'' Silber Gallery,

Goucher College Goucher College ( ') is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1885 as a Nonsectarian, nonsecterian Women's colleges in the United States, ...

, Baltimore, MD. January 29—March 16, 2019 (solo & catalog) * 2018: ''Through-Line: Drawing and Weaving by 19 Artists'', Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; ''Body / Parts'', Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT * 2017: ''Laylah Ali: Paintings and Drawings'', Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY. November 10—December 22, 2017 (solo & catalog) * 2017: ''Laylah Ali: Not Self Portraits'', curated by Lisa Jarrett and Harrell Fletcher, KSMoCA, Portland, OR. May—November, 2017 * 2016: ''Black Pulp!'' curated by Mark Thomas Gibson and William Villalongo, Edgewood Gallery,

Yale School of Art The Yale School of Art is the art school of Yale University. Founded in 1869 as the first professional fine arts school in the United States, it grants Master of Fine Arts, Masters of Fine Arts degrees to students completing a two-year course in g ...

, New Haven, CT. January 19—March 11, 2016—traveled to Print Center New York, NY. October 12—December 19, 2016; University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL. June 2—July 20, 2017; Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery,

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

, Middletown, CT. September 19—December 10, 2017; The African American Museum in Philadelphia, PA. February 2—April 29, 2018; ''Overgrowth'', deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA; ''Radio Imagination: Artists in the Archive of Octavia E. Butler'', Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA * 2015: ''The Acephalous Series,'' Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY (solo) * 2015: ''ASSISTED'', curated by Jessica Stockholder, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL; ''Come as You Are: Art of the 1990s,'' Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ—traveled to Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA. June 12—September 20, 2015;

University of Michigan Museum of Art The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) is one of the largest university art museums in the United States, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with . Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alu ...

, Ann Arbor, MI. October 17, 2015—January 31, 2016;

Blanton Museum of Art The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art (often referred to as the Blanton or the BMA) at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest university art museums in the U.S. with 189,340 square feet devoted to temporary exhibitions, permanent co ...

, University of Texas at Austin, TX. February 17—May 15, 2016 * 2014: ''Personal Histories'',

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in ...

, Seattle, WA; ''Up Every Evening'', Season Gallery, Seattle, WA * 2013: ''The Shadows Took Shape'', The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (catalog); ''Ambiguous Histories: Selected Art from the Exit Art Portfolios'', Art, Design, and Architecture Museum,

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

, CA; ''Laylah Ali & Gerald Cyrus'', Pennsylvania College of Art and Design Gallery, Lancaster, PA; ''Direct Democracy'', Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia (catalog); ''Painting Between the Lines'', Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA (catalog); ''Revelations: Examining Democracy'', Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI * 2012: ''Laylah Ali: The Greenheads Series'',

Williams College Museum of Art The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) is a college-affiliated art museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It is located on the Williams College campus, close to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) and the Clark Art Institu ...

, Williamstown, MA—traveled to

Weisman Art Museum Weisman Art Museum is an art museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1934 as University Gallery, the museum was originally housed in an upper floor of the university's Northrop Auditorium. In 1993, the museum ...

at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. March 2—June 30, 2013;

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art ("The Johnson Museum") is an art museum located on the northwest corner of the Arts Quad on the main campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its collection includes two windows from Frank Llo ...

at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. September 7—December 22, 2013 (solo & catalog) * 2012: ''Thenceforward, and Forever Free'', Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI; ''Under the Influence: The Comics'',

Lehman College Lehman College is a public college in New York City, United States. Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, it became an independent college in 1967. The college is named after Herbert H. Lehman, a former New York governor, United ...

Art Gallery, Bronx, NY; ''The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World'',

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

, Philadelphia, PA (catalog); ''Voluntaries,'' MoMA, New York, NY, part of the “Some sweet day” series (collaborative performance with Dean Moss) * 2011: ''The Air We Breathe'',

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

, San Francisco, CA (catalog); ''Painting Between the Lines'', CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA (catalog); ''Relatos extraordinarios: Laylah Ali and Abigail Lazkoz'', Sala Parpalló, Valencia, Spain (catalog); ''Vivid: Female Currents in Painting'', Schroeder Romero & Shredder, New York, NY * 2010: ''Works on Paper from the MCA Collection, ''Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL; ''Collected: Reflections on the Permanent Collection'', The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY * 2009: ''Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art.'' Art Works for Change, Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway—traveled to University Art Gallery,

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

, CA (2009–2010); Centro Cultural Tijuana and Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico (2010);

Chicago Cultural Center The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building operated by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The Cultural Center houses the city's official reception venue, where the Mayor of Chicago, M ...

, Chicago, IL (2011); Global Health Odyssey Museum, Atlanta, GA (2011); Prospect.2 New Orleans and Newcomb Art Museum, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA (2011); The Art Gallery of Calgary, Alberta, Canada (2013); Fundación Canal, Madrid, Spain (2013);

Johannesburg Art Gallery The Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) is an art gallery in Joubert Park in the city centre of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was once the largest gallery on the continent with a collection of more than 9000 artworks. The gallery collection is la ...

, Johannesburg, South Africa (2013);

Winnipeg Art Gallery The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) is an art museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Its permanent collection includes over 24,000 works from Canadian, Indigenous Canadian, and international artists. The museum also holds the world's largest collect ...

, Manitoba, Canada (2014); ''Paper Trail: A Decade of Acquisitions from the Walker Art Center'', Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA; ''Massachusetts Review: Celebrating Fifty Years of Covers'', University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA; ''If I Didn't Care: Generational Artists Discuss Cultural Histories'', The Park School, Baltimore, MD * 2008: ''Laylah Ali: Notes/Drawings/Untitled Afflictions'', deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA (solo & catalog) * 2008: ''Beyond Drawing: Constructed Realities'',

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

Art Gallery, Athens, OH; ''Fantastical Imaginings'', The Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE—traveled to Julio Fine Arts Gallery,

Loyola University Maryland Loyola University Maryland is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established as Loyola College in Maryland by John Early (educator), John Early and eight other members of the Society of Je ...

, Baltimore, MD (2009); ''Political Circus'', Ritter Art Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL; ''On the Margins'', Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, MO (catalog); ''Disguised'', Rotwand Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland; ''Out of Shape'', Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY (catalog); ''Taking Possession'',

University of Arkansas at Little Rock The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UA Little Rock, UALR) is a Public university, public research university in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States. Established as Little Rock Junior College by the Little Rock School District in 1927, the ...

, AR; ''Perverted by Theater'', Apexart, New York, NY; ''Pandora's Box'', Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada (catalog); ''Quadrennial 2008'', U-Turn Quadrennial for Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, Denmark (catalog); ''Text/Messages: Books by Artists'', Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN * 2007: ''the kiss and other warriors, ''

Institute of International Visual Arts Iniva (which was formerly written as inIVA) is the Institute of International Visual Art, a visual arts organisation based in London that collaborates with contemporary artists, curators and writers. Iniva runs the Stuart Hall Library, and is b ...

, London, England (solo & catalog) * 2007: ''Drawings from the Typology Series'', Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA—traveled to

University of Iowa Museum of Art The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art is a visual arts institution that is part of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Since its inception, the museum has part ...

, Iowa City, IA;

University of Arizona Museum of Art The University of Arizona Museum of Art (UAMA) is an art museum in Tucson, Arizona, operated by the University of Arizona. The museum's permanent collection includes more than 6,000 works of art, including paintings, sculptures, prints and draw ...

, Tucson, AZ (solo & catalog) * 2006: ''Alien Nation'',

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an modernism, artistic and cultural centre on The Mall (London), The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps a ...

, London, England—traveled to

Manchester Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre, England. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupi ...

, Manchester, England;

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts The Sainsbury Centre is an art museum located on the campus of the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England. As part of its relaunch in 2023 under new executive director, Jago Cooper, the Sainsbury Centre became the first museum in the wor ...

, Norwich, England (catalog); ''Cult Fiction'',

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Royal ...

, London, England (catalog); ''Counterparts: Contemporary Painters and Their Influences'',

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, marketed as ''Virginia MOCA'', is a non-collecting contemporary art museum and community art center in Virginia Beach, Virginia, widely known for its annual Boardwalk Art Show. Virginia MOCA itself evol ...

, Virginia Beach, VA (catalog); ''Running Around the Pool'',

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL (catalog); ''XXS'', Sommer Contemporary Art Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel; ''American Matrix'',

Harn Museum of Art The Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art is an art museum at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. It is in the UF Cultural Plaza area in the southwest part of campus. The Harn is a 112,800-square-foot facility, making it one of the largest u ...

, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL; ''Black Alphabet'', Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland (catalog); ''Having New Eyes'',

Aspen Art Museum Founded in 1979, the Aspen Art Museum (AAM) is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in Aspen, Colorado, United States. AAM exhibitions include drawings, paintings, sculptures, multimedia installations and electronic media. Building ...

, Aspen, CO * 2005: ''The Body. The Ruin'',

Ian Potter Museum of Art The Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia was established in 1972. The Potter, as it is known locally, presents a curated exhibition program of historical and contemporary art. Through its activities the Pot ...

, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia (catalog); ''Cut'',

Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects Vielmetter Los Angeles (formerly Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects) is a contemporary art gallery founded in 2000 by Susanne Vielmetter. The gallery is located in downtown Los Angeles. History Susanne Vielmetter launched her first gallery ...

, Los Angeles, CA; ''Vivi-Seccion: Dibujo Contemporaneo'', Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico;

303 Gallery 303 Gallery is an art gallery in Manhattan, New York. It was established in 1984 by owner and director Lisa Spellman, described by art critic Jerry Saltz as "one of the greatest New York gallerists of our time". The gallery hosts contemporary wor ...

, New York, NY * 2004: ''Laylah Ali: Types, ''

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis is an art museum for contemporary art, located in St. Louis, Missouri. Known informally as the CAM St. Louis, the museum is located at 3750 Washington Boulevard in the Grand Center Arts District. The build ...

, MO (solo & catalog) * 2004: ''Whitney Biennial 2004'', Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (catalog); ''Material Witness'',

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (abbreviated to moCa) is a contemporary art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the only contemporary art venue of its kind in Metropolitan Cleveland. The organisation was founded by Marjorie ...

, OH (catalog); ''The 10 Commandments'',

KW Institute for Contemporary Art The KW Institute for Contemporary Art (also known as Kunst-Werke) is a contemporary art institution located in Auguststraße 69 in Berlin-Mitte, Germany. Klaus Biesenbach was the founding director of KW; the current director is Emma Enderby. KW c ...

, Berlin, Germany * 2003: ''Crosscurrents at Century's End: Selections from the Neuberger Berman Art Collection'',

Henry Art Gallery The Henry Art Gallery ("The Henry") is a contemporary art museum located on the campus of the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington, United States. Located on the west edge of the university's campus along 15th Avenue N.E. in the Un ...

, University of Washington, Seattle, WA—traveled to

Norton Museum of Art The Norton Museum of Art is an art museum in West Palm Beach, Florida. The museum has a collection that includes over 8,200 works, with a concentration in Western art history, European, Visual arts of the United States, American, and Chinese art ...

, West Palm Beach, FL;

Tampa Museum of Art The Tampa Museum of Art is located in Downtown Tampa, downtown Tampa, Florida. It exhibits modern and contemporary art, as well as Art in Ancient Greece, Greek, Ancient Rome, Roman, and Etruscan civilization, Etruscan antiquities. The museum open ...

, Tampa, FL; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL (catalog); ''Fault Lines: Contemporary African Art and Shifting Landscapes'', Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (catalog); ''me & more'',

Kunstmuseum Luzern Kunstmuseum Luzern (Museum of Art Lucerne) is an art museum founded in 1932, is located within the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre (or KKL Luzern). It is one of the most important art museums in Switzerland, known for its temporary rotating ...

, Lucerne, Switzerland (catalog); ''Splat! Boom! Pow! The Influence of Cartoons in Contemporary Art'',

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is a not-for-profit institution in the Museum District, Houston, Texas, founded in 1948, dedicated to presenting contemporary art to the public. As a non-collecting museum, it strives to provide a forum for visua ...

, TX—traveled to ICA, Boston, MA;

Wexner Center for the Arts The Wexner Center for the Arts is the Ohio State University's "multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art." The Wexner Center is a lab and public gallery, but not an art museum, as it doe ...

, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (catalog) * 2002: ''Projects 75: Laylah Ali, ''The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (solo & catalog) * 2002: ''Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation'', Miller ICA, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA—traveled to Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA; University of North Texas, Denton, TX; Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA (catalog); ''Fantasyland'', D’Amelio Terras, New York, NY; ''First Person Singular'', Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; ''Painting in Boston'', deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA * 2001: ''Laylah Ali: 2000 ICA Artist Prize,''

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is an art museum and exhibition space located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The museum was founded as the Boston Museum of Modern Art in 1936. Since then it has gone through multiple name chang ...

, MA (solo & catalog) * 2001: ''Paintings on Paper,'' Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA (solo) * 2001: ''Against the Wall: Painting Against the Grid, Surface, Frame'', Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; ''Freestyle'', The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (catalog); ''FRESH: 1998—2000'',

New Museum of Contemporary Art The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-name ...

, New York, NY; ''Guarene Arte 2001'', Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy; ''A Work in Progress: Selections from the New Museum Collection'', New Museum, New York, NY * 2000: ''Art on Paper 2000'',

Weatherspoon Art Museum The Weatherspoon Art Museum is located at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is one of the largest collections of modern and contemporary art in the southeast with a focus on American art. Its programming includes fifteen or more ...

, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC * 1999: ''Laylah Ali: Small Aggressions'', Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL (solo) * 1999: ''Bizarro World! The Parallel Universes of Comics and Fine Art'', Rollins Museum of Art, Winter Park, FL; ''Collectors Collect Contemporary'', ICA, Boston, MA; ''The 1999 deCordova Annual Exhibition'', deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA (catalog); ''No Place Rather than Here'', 303 Gallery, New York, NY * 1998: ''Paradise 8'',

Exit Art Exit Art was a non-profit cultural center that ran from 1982 to 2012 that exhibited contemporary visual art, installation, video, theater, and performance in New York City, United States. In its last location in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, it was ...

, New York, NY; ''Posing'',

Boston Center for the Arts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and financial center of New England, a region of the Northeastern United States. It has an area of and a ...

, Boston, MA; ''Selections Summer 1998'',

The Drawing Center The Drawing Center is a museum and a nonprofit exhibition space in Manhattan, New York City, that focuses on the exhibition of drawings, both historical and contemporary. History The Drawing Center was founded by former assistant curator of dr ...

, New York, NY; ''Telling Tales'', Atrium Gallery,

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

, Storrs, CT

Awards

Laylah Ali has been awarded a number of grants, residencies and awards, including the

Joan Mitchell Foundation Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...

Painters and Sculptors Grant in 2008, the Joan Mitchell Foundation Residency in 2018, the United States Artists Fellowship, as well as being honored as an artist-in-residence at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

Headlands Center for the Arts Headlands Center for the Arts hosts an internationally recognized artist-in-residence program, and interdisciplinary public programs. It is situated in a campus of artist-renovated military buildings in the Marin Headlands, in Marin County, Cali ...

, and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

References

Bibliography

Selected artist books, exhibition catalogs, print editions and press: *''Is Anything the Matter? Drawings by Laylah Ali''. Essays by Karen Kurczynski and

Arisa White Arisa White is an American poet based in Oakland, California. She is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the poetry chapbooks ''Disposition for Shininess'', ''Post Pardon'', and ''Black Pearl'', and the books ''Hurrah's Nest'', ''A Penny Saved,'' an ...

; interview with Romi Crawford, Marion Art Gallery, SUNY Fredonia, NY, 2024. *Four letterpress prints (edition of 250) from “Self-Portraits with

Nat Turner Nat Turner (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an enslaved Black carpenter and preacher who led a four-day rebellion of both enslaved and free Black people in Southampton County, Virginia in August 1831. Nat Turner's Rebellion res ...

’s Vision” 1994 series, printed and published by Pellinore Press, Baltimore, MD, in collaboration with Goucher College, 2019. *''Laylah Ali: The Acephalous Series''. Essays by Alex Ebstein, Tisa Bryant,

Kaitlyn Greenidge Kaitlyn Greenidge is an American writer. She received a 2017 Whiting Award for Fiction for her debut novel, ''We Love You, Charlie Freeman''. Her second book is a historical novel called ''Libertie'' (2021). Early life and education Greenidge ...

; interview with

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is an American poet known for their work on poetry and digital storytelling. Education and career Bertram holds a PhD in Literature & Creative Writing from the University of Utah, in addition to degrees from Carnegie Mel ...

, Silber Gallery, Goucher College, Baltimore, MD, 2019. *''Comfort with Rage.'' Silkscreen print (edition of 100) commissioned by

Printed Matter Printed matter is a term, mostly used by mailing systems, normally used to describe mechanically printed materials for which reduced fees are paid which are lower than first-class mail. Each postal administration has its own rules for what may be ...

for

NY Art Book Fair The NY Art Book Fair is Printed Matter, Inc's annual event, held in various months ranging from September, October, or April. The NY Art Book Fair is the world's largest book fair for artists’ books and related publications, featuring over 370 ...

, printed and published by Kayrock Screenprinting, Brooklyn, NY, 2018. *''Sixteen Drawings''. Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY, 2017. *''Laylah Ali: The Greenheads Series''. Essays by

Julia Bryan-Wilson Julia Bryan-Wilson is an American art historian and curator. Bryan-Wilson is Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. She was previously the Doris and Clarence Malo Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Universit ...

and Kevin Young; interview with Deborah Rothschild, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA, 2012. *''Laylah Ali: Note Drawings''. Essay by Dina Deitsch; interview with Kevin Young, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA, 2008. *''Laylah Ali: Typology.'' Essay by Alex Baker; interview with

Kara Walker Kara Elizabeth Walker (born November 26, 1969) is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, printmaker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores Race (classification of human beings), race, gender, human sexuality, sexual ...

, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2007. *''Notes with Little Illustration.'' Institute of International Visual Arts, London, book design by the artist and Nicole Parente, 2007. *''

The Believer Believer(s) or The Believer(s) may refer to: Religion * Believer, a person who holds a particular belief ** Believer, a person who holds a particular religious belief *** Believers, Christians with a religious faith in the divine Christ *** Bel ...

: The Visual Issue.'' Interview with Tisa Bryant, p. 79, Dec. 2005 - Jan. 2006 *''Types.'' Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO, 2005 *''Untitled.'' Aquatint etching print (edition of 50) published by Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH, 2002. In the collection of the RISD Museum. *''Untitled.'' Graphic novelette published on the occasion of Projects 75 for The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, digital production by Nicole Parente, 2002. *''Laylah Ali: ICA Artist Prize 2000.'' Essays by Jessica Morgan and Suzanne Wise; interview with

Rebecca Walker Rebecca Walker (born Rebecca Leventhal; November 17, 1969) is an American writer, feminist, and activist. Walker has been regarded as one of the prominent voices of Third Wave Feminism, and the coiner of the term "third wave", since publishing ...

, ICA Boston, MA, 2001.

External links

Laylah Ali: Meaning , Art21 "Exclusive"artnet Asks: Laylah AliLaylah Ali , Dia Art Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Laylah 1968 births Living people American contemporary painters African-American contemporary artists African-American women artists African-American painters Painters from New York (state) 21st-century American painters 21st-century American women painters Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American artists 20th-century African-American artists 20th-century African-American women Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts alumni Williams College alumni Williams College faculty American academics