Laylah Ali

Laylah Ali was born in Buffalo, New York in 1968. She received a BA from Williams College and an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The precision with which Ali creates her small figurative gouache paintings on paper is such that it takes her many months o complete a single work. In style, her paintings resemble comicbook serials, but they also contain stylistic references to hieroglyphics and American folk-art traditions. She often achieves a high level of emotional tension in her work as a result of juxtaposing brightly colored scenes with dark, often violent subject matter that speaks of political resistance, social relationships, and betrayal. She lives and works in Williamstown, Massachusetts.