By Dominick Lombardi
“Is anything the matter? Drawings by Laylah Ali”
University Museum of Contemporary Art, Amherst, Massachusetts
The fact that Laylah Ali’s art is as mysterious as it is profound, the 100-plus drawings and mixed-media works in this exhibition have serious reverberations that extend well beyond their scale. The time period of the works here ranges from 1993 to 2020. Some have more complex narratives that are puzzling psychological dramas, while others are powerfully present portraits. Regardless of Ali’s inspiration for making such enigmatic works, they all have an undeniable visceral strength that often borders on fury, exemplified by the various mark-making techniques and the piercing expressions in the subject’s eyes.
Most of the imagery here comes straight from the artist’s serious observations, sights and scenarios that are internally extrapolated and boldly reconstituted. Details distilled down to their essential aspects that continue to flow from the age-old shortcomings in our uniquely American, socio-political deficiencies and sorry social mores. By creating works with a cartoon-like style and clarity, the resulting art draws you up close, right into an intimate space where elusive truths are both jarring and mesmerizing. Perhaps the best examples of this visceral effect are from the Typology series (2005-7), where the interactions between two subjects feature creepy dominance punctuated by daunting detail and technical beauty. Something along the line of the jolting presence of the hideous/beauteous type that inevitably resurfaces throughout Modern and Contemporary Art. Only the best creatives can truly pull it off and Ali manages it masterfully.
Ali, L. (2006-2007), Both Untitled (from Typology series), [ink and pencil on paper, 24 x 19 inches], Photo. © 2025
Words by well-known science-fiction writer Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) are recorded and visually responded to in the series, Commonplace Drawing, from 2016. Taken out of context from one of Butler’s writings, the text: “At this moment not yesterday and perhaps not tomorrow I don’t believe my heart or its major arteries are the problem. I believe the problem is WHAT I AM BREATHING ALONG WITH THE AIR”. This collaboration of words and images now becomes a more powerful political statement, moving Ali’s art to a higher universal plane where ever-worsening political, environmental, and social concerns are being felt throughout the world. Unfortunately, none of this enlightened state of mind is shared by shortsighted megacorporations or the political right.
Ali, L. (2016). Untitled (from Commonplace Drawings inspired by the archives of Octavia E. Butler), [ink, colored pencil and pencil on paper, 17 x 14 inches]. Text by Octavia E. Butler, Photo. © 2025
Untitled (N.O. Series), 2018, shows what looks like bubble-like pink testicles getting squeezed by long brown fingers and a thumb emerging monster-like from a blue and white striped bow. The notion of N.O. is crystal clear, as seen in the reddened faces above and below the action, all bearing ‘message received’ expressions. Aesthetically, Untitled (N.O. Series) is a subtle mix of Adolf Wolfli and Carol Dunham’s late oeuvre.
Content-wise, Ali doesn’t sugar coat the message. However, unlike Dunham, Ali’s scale and not so fussy quick mark-making technique here and there brings in a palpable, uneasy innocence stolen. Additionally, the fact that Ali uses somewhat cheery colors diffuses the message slightly while still maintaining its dark place.
Ali, L. (2018). Untitled (N.O. Series) [mixed media on paper, 17 x 14 inches] Photo. 2025
Laylah Ali’s uncompromising art is as haunting as it is indelible and I urge anyone who can get to the University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMass Amherst by May 9, 2025, should go and see it. Those near Colby College and the Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, will have their chance to see the exhibition from October 21, 2025, through April 19, 2026.
Your Ghost Haunts My Shores”, Eva Lin Fahey
Augusta Savage Gallery, UMass Amherst, Massachusetts
A second exhibition on campus is “Your Ghost Haunts My Shores, Eva Lin Fahey.” Featured at the Augusta Savage Gallery, a space named after the African American sculptor and teacher that came of age during the Harlem Renaissance, has as its mission to offer exhibitions “selected for their aesthetic integrity and their ability to enlighten the viewer on such issues as race, ethnicity, class, and cultural identity.”
After speaking with Eva Lin Fahey, it was decided that I would refer to her as Eva in this review, since that is the name that feels most fitting for her. Being one of the unfortunate girls born in China during the One Child policy, Eva has never felt grounded by place or family situation, especially growing up in New England, where everyone she knew looked different from her.
Her life began at a time when female babies were almost always set up for adoption overseas to control population growth, while simultaneously building a male army and workforce from 1979 to 2015. Eva’s transition from Communist China to an adopted family in the US, then marriage and becoming a mother in another new life dynamic has finally brought the beginning of a sense of belonging, however it is not total or irreversible.
Having grown up near the ocean, Eva finds this a place of comfort, contemplation and consistency. All of the art in this exhibition includes familiar elements that directly refer to the ocean, whether it is a shorebird, a fishing net, seashells, or sand; the connection is both deep and lucid. Punctuated by the addition of highly reflective mylar placed on the floor to simulate the reflective quality of water up onto the gallery walls, one can almost hear the deep rhythmic tones of the ocean that naturally act to soothe the soul. However, we should not assume that Eva finds total peace by the sea. It is more like a time for searching. Moments to look for answers then it is a place of rest or repose.
Fahey, E.L. (2025) Meal for our Ghosts: Tea. [Oil on birch panel, 36 x 36 inches] Photo: Stephen Petegorsky
The one painting that best sums up the cultural complexity of the artist is Meal for Our Ghosts: Tea (2024). In this square format oil on wood panel, there are a few elements that more than spin the narrative: a cell phone, a teapot with three small cups filled with ceremonial green tea, and a heavy corded net in a mandala-like pattern dotted with pearls or large teardrops. The three cups appear to represent the artist’s three ‘family’ stages, suggesting a connection to pop culture and diversity. Intricately painted, Meal for Our Ghosts: Tea puts forth a brief synopsis of her long, troubled journey, always seeking belonging, a vital state that finally began to take root with the birth of her two small children.
Fahey, E.L. (2025) 宝贝回家 (Bǎobèi huí jiā) [Oil on birch panel, 36 x 36 inches] Photo: Stephen Petegorsky
Eva constantly collects and displays a variety of actual shells in this and her other installations. Some of those same shells appear in a carefully and meticulously painted, grid-like diary calendar titled 宝贝回家 (Bǎobèi huí jiā) (2025). These found shells, which were once living beings that moved with the changing currents and tides, have now transitioned into curious inanimate objects. An end of one life or phase moving to a symbol of all that is the ocean, a perspective one only knows when only ever standing on the shore, staring longingly at the seemingly endless sea.
The exhibition essay mentions a theory of Homi K. Bhabha where you have “the ‘third space’ – where hybridizing identities arise and resist dominant narratives.” This exhibition, like the earlier one reviewed, “Is anything the matter? Drawings by Laylah Ali,” deals with the oppressive realities that are all too often faced more profoundly by women of color.
