Laylah Ali: Note Drawings
08/29/2012
Beverly, MA -- Endicott College is pleased to announce Note Drawings, the solo exhibit by Laylah Ali located in the Spencer Presentation Gallery, Walter J. Manninen Center for the Arts, Endicott College, 376 Hale Street, Beverly from Thursday, August 30, through Friday, October 12, 2012. This exhibit is free and open to the public. Please call 978-232-2655 for gallery hours.
In this solo exhibit Note Drawings; Laylah Ali uses both word and image. Ms. Ali questions the conventions of our society by complicating its visual and linguistic symbols. In her art, meaning is never fixed: Exactly what her characters are doing, or why is never made clear, thereby inviting thoughtful consideration of viewers. All representation, she seems to say, is limited, unstable, and wholly unable to express truth. Cartoonish figures are created with the unexpected combination of clothing, skin color, and hair; for example she drew an alligator head on the body of a bare-breasted woman. Ms. Ali’s characters undermine and question conventional visual markers of identity. Many of the notes on Ali’s works are overheard conversations, found articles in print, and radio or televised news related stories. Ms. Ali states that the images were created spontaneously, they were not plotted out; so therefore there is an element of subconscious life to these works.
Dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts, Mark Towner, commented on the exhibit, “Frankly, the artwork in this exhibit pushes conventional boundaries, and may push the buttons of some viewers. Both the content - with surreal synthesis of seemingly disparate elements, and a style that suggests naiveté, may offend some of our audience and excite others. As a student-centered teaching gallery,” Dean Towner continued, “these poles contribute to student dialogue and help them to clarify their own interests in subject, style, and medium.”
Laylah Ali lives and works in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she is an Associate Professor of Art at Williams College. Her work is held in collections at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Institute of contemporary Art, Boston; and DeCordova Museum as well as others. She has had solo exhibits throughout the United States and Europe, and has been involved in numerous group exhibitions, projects, artist books, publications and catalogs. Laylah’s work was also exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2003) and the Whitney Biennial (2004). Laylah Ali has received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, United States Artists Fellowship, the William H. Johnson Prize, and the ICA Artist Price, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.
The exhibit is free and open to the public, and has been made possible with support from the Bruce T. Halle Family Foundation. For gallery hours, please contact 978-232-2655.
If you have any questions regarding Laylah Ali: Note Drawings, or any of the programming related to this exhibition, please contact Kathleen Moore at 978-232-2655 or kmoore@endicott.edu. Our website is: www.endicott.edu/centerforthearts for further information on future exhibits and lecture opportunities.