Art21 Extended Play

Laylah Ali | Television

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EXCLUSIVE: In her Williamstown, Massachusetts studio, artist Laylah Ali describes how the television cartoons she watched as a child inform the way she works and thinks today.

Laylah Ali creates gouache-on-paper paintings that take her many months to complete. Ali meticulously plots out in advance every aspect of her work, from subject matter to choice of color, achieving a high level of emotional tension in her paintings as a result of juxtaposing brightly colored scenes with dark, often violent subject matter.

Laylah Ali. "Untitled," 2004. Gouache on paper, 15 7/16 x 15 2/16 inches. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.

Laylah Ali. "Untitled," 2004. Gouache on paper, 15 7/16 x 15 2/16 inches. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.

Laylah Ali is featured in the Season 3 (2005) episode Power of the Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century television series on PBS.

VIDEO | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Joel Shapiro. Sound: Tom Bergin. Editor: Jenny Chiurco &ampl Mary Ann Toman. Artwork Courtesy: Laylah Ali