Socio-Political Artist Laylah Ali Gives Public Lecture Nov. 9

Paul Kasmin Gallery. Image medium: gouache, acrylic, watercolor, and pencil on paper

Image title: Untitled (Acephalous series)

Prolific artist Laylah Ali, in conjunction with Red Ridge Editions, will give a free public lecture about her art, which questions the representations of socio-political issues and creates narratives that investigate the stability of power dynamics. 

Her lecture will be at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 9 in Giffels Auditorium in Old Main.

Ali's most well-known and longest-running series of paintings depicts the brown-skinned and gender-neutral Greenheads, and her current work includes portraits and abstract biomorphic images.

In addition to her lecture, she will be working alongside School of Art master printer and assistant professor Sean Morrissey and students for two weeks to create a number of print editions.

Ali has had numerous solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; ICA, Boston; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis; and MASS MoCA. Her work was shown in the Whitney Biennial in 2004, the Venice Biennale in 2003, and was the subject of the PBS documentary series Art21.

Ali's work is included in numerous public collections such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; among many others.

Ali was born in Buffalo, New York and lives and works in Williamstown, Massachusetts. She holds a B.A. from Williams College and an M.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis.

This School of Art visiting artist lecture and collaborative print edition project has been funded by the Dean’s Office in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.