Laylah Ali
Untitled (Blue Running), 2000*
Gouache on paper
13 x 21 inches
acquired 2000
Untitled, 2002
Watercolor on paper
11 x 9 inches
acquired 2003
Biography
Born 1968 in Buffalo, New York.
Ali lives and works in Williamstown, Massachusetts. She obtained her 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 to complete a single work. She meticulously plots out every aspect of her work in advance, from subject matter to choice of color and the brushes that she will use. In style, her paintings resemble comic-book serials, but they also contain stylistic references to hieroglyphics and American folk-art traditions. Laylah Ali has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis; and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art; among others. Her work was exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2003) and the Whitney Biennial (2004).
Awards
2008 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant
2007 United States Artists Fellowship
2002 William H. Johnson Prize
2001 Premio Regione Piemonte (FondazioneSandretto Re Rebaudengo Per L?Arte)
2000 ICA Artist Prize (Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts)
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