Laylah Ali

Laylah Ali born in Buffalo New York now works in Williamstown, Massachusetts. At Williams College she received a BA and then went on to receive a MFA at Washington University in St. Louis. Due to Ali's small and precise subject matter it takes her long amounts of time to complete a work. Ali uses a comic- book style while at the same time references to stylistic traditions of American folk-art. Ali pays close attention to her color palette while planning out her subject matter.
Most do not know that Ali has an interest in socio political issues because her end results do not always depict such issues. She does however achieve a level of emotional tension because she uses juxtaposition by using bright colors with violent subject matter. Recently Ali has been using abstract biomorphic images but she is most well known for her paintings of gender-neutral brown skinned greenheads. She often depicts everyday things by using subjects like doge balls, sneakers and band-aids. Ali thinks of her drawings as more playful than her paintings, because of this she often looks back to her drawings when she is painting.
When I first Laylah Ali on Art 21 I did not like her work. But when I looked deeper into her work I could get a sense of her interest in social relationships and political resistance. The weird creatures she invents are not just random. She has a well thought out plan for every one of her paintings and the subjects in them have a deeper meaning than what you eye first sees.