For Immediate Release
August 11, 2008
Contact: Corey Cronin 781/259-3628
Dina Deitsch 781/259-3624
Laylah Ali: Notes/Drawings/Untitled Afflictions
James and Audrey Foster Galleries
August 30, 2008 – January 4, 2009
(public opening reception: September 4 from 7 – 9 pm )
Lincoln, MA—Laylah Ali: Notes/Drawings/Untitled Afflictions exhibits a new group of drawings by this critically acclaimed artist. Over the past decade, Laylah Ali has gained international recognition for her ability to condense complex, socio-political commentary into deceptively simple imagery. Her signature combination of jarring narratives and graphic visual style are best known through her “Greenheads” series, first featured in The 1999 DeCordova Annual Exhibition. Her use of humor and violence, in both form and content, cultivates what she describes as a “highly specific ambiguity.”
While language has always been at the heart of Ali’s investigations – in its cultural limitations and misinterpretations – she only just recently incorporated it into her drawings. Notes/Drawings/ Untitled Afflictions marks the inaugural museum presentation of Ali’s newest body of work.
The notes are a compilation of her random thoughts, overheard conversations, and snippets from newspapers, radio, and other media outlets. Ali carefully organizes these “found” texts in brief vignettes that are almost poetic in their attention to rhythm and syntax. The artist’s characteristically ambiguous characters are drawn over and under the notes. They too are cobbled together—dressed in masks, wigs, and costumes that confuse rather than clarify their sexual and racial identities.
In both word and image, 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. Language, too, is slippery. Like imagery, it relies heavily on convention and context. All representation, she seems to say, is limited, unstable, and wholly unable to express truth. Bearing unexpected combinations of clothing, skin color, and hair, Ali’s characters subvert and question conventional visual markers of identity.
Laylah Ali lives and works in Williamstown , Massachusetts , and is an Associate Professor of Art at Williams College . Her work is in the collections of the DeCordova Museum ; the Museum of Modern Art , New York ; and ICA , Boston , among others. She has exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2003) and the Whitney Biennial (2004), and she was a featured artist in the PBS series Art: 21 – Art in the Twenty-First Century, broadcast in 2005.
This exhibition will be accompanied by a brochure and 80-page catalogue with additional texts by Lisa Fischman of the University of Arizona Museum of Art and poet Kevin Young. The catalogue will be available to press in mid-late October. Funding and support for Notes/Drawings/Untitled Afflictions has been generously provided by the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, the Robert E. Davoli and Eileen L. McDonagh Charitable Foundation, James and Audrey Foster, Steven Rogowski, Anthony and Beth Terrana, and the Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA.
On November 13 at 6:30 pm , join Laylah Ali and DeCordova’s Assitant Curator Dina Deitsch for an evening of conversation discussing Ali’s work and the state of drawing as a re-emerging contemporary art form. $5 Members & Students with valid ID/$ 7 Non-Members. RSVP to Emily Silet at 781/259-3632 or esilet@decorova.og. Tickets will be held at the door.
This exhibition has been organized by Assistant Curator Dina Deitsch.
Bank of America’s Museums on Us™
DeCordova is proud to be a participant in Bank of America’s Museums on Us™ program. Beginning in May, all visitors who present a valid Bank of America ATM, debit or credit card, along with photo identification will receive free general admission to DeCordova’s campus on the first weekend of each month until April 2009. This program excludes special events.
General Information: DeCordova is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm and on selected Monday holidays. General admission during Museum hours is $12 for adults, $8 for senior citizens, students, and youth ages 6–12. Children age 5 and under, Lincoln residents, and Active Duty Military Personnel and their dependents are admitted free. The Sculpture Park is open year round during daylight hours. The Store @ DeCordova and the School Gallery are open Monday through Thursday, 9:30 am to 7:30 pm, Friday through Saturday, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm , and Sunday 10:30 am to 5:30 pm. The Café @ DeCordova is open Tuesday from noon to 3 pm, and Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 4 pm. Guided public tours of the Museum’s main galleries take place every Thursday at 1 and Sunday at 2 pm. Tours of the Sculpture Park are given on Saturday and Sunday at 1 pm from May to Oct. All guided public tours are free with Campus admission. Visit www.decordova.org or call 781/259-8355 for further information.
###
