April 09, 2025 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm ET
Old Chapel, 144 Hicks Way, Amherst, MA 01002

Laylah Ali has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis; and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. She has been the recipient of multiple honors including the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, United States Artists Fellowship, William H. Johnson Prize, and the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston Artist Prize. Her work and process were highlighted in season three of the acclaimed PBS Art21 series.  She is a Professor of Art at Williams College in MA.

Banner for Is anything the matter? Exhibition at The University Museum of Contemporary Art

Laylah Ali's talk is happening in conjunction with her solo exhibition at the University Museum of Contemporary Art, Is anything the matter?  

Is anything the matter? includes more than one hundred drawings by Laylah Ali dating from 1993 to 2020. Though the drawings range in format — including ink, colored pencil, soluble crayon, colored marker, and mixed media works — each piece explores Ali’s ongoing interest in the amalgam of race, power, gendering, human frailty, and murky politics.

Spanning nearly three decades of Ali’s work, the exhibition spans the museums’ Main and West galleries, and allows visitors to discover stylistic and contextual similarities, contrasts, and shifts in her drawings over time.  

On view: February 14 – May 9 

Opening reception: Thursday, February 13, 5-7 p.m. / Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts lobby