Laylah Ali: The Acephalous Series

Widely known for her iconic series, the Greenheads, which was the subject of a traveling museum exhibition from 2012 – 2013, Ali explores power dynamics and interpersonal conflict through compositions that position culturally and sexually ambiguous figures in precarious, loaded, and unexpectedly humorous situations. While the works included in The Acephalous Series are similarly engaging and metaphoric, Ali has introduced new narratives with a fraught community of figures, including those with minimal bodies, some who lack heads, or appear to be on an endless, determined trek.
The exhibition will be comprised of ten gouache and acrylic paintings on paper. While maintaining her characteristic intensive process, the works in The Acephalous Series are Ali’s largest in scale to date.

Laylah Ali was included in the 2003 Venice Biennale and the 2004 Whitney Biennial, and she has had solo exhibitions at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, amongst many others.