Latifa Alajlan
Artist Portrait by Lile Kvantaliani
Latifa Alajlan (b. 1998, Kuwait City, Kuwait) channels elements of Kuwaiti culture in her paintings through use of patterning and form. Alajlan’s star-shaped canvases and latticework-like underpaintings reflect prevalent motifs in Middle Eastern architecture, including places of worship, government buildings, historical sites, and monuments. While Alajlan’s mode of abstraction is respective of the history of non-representative art in the Middle East, her expressive, atmospheric works represent a distinct and somatically evocative, conceptually driven practice. Flight-like gestures intermingle with identifiable idioms, calling systems of structure into question.
Latifa Alajlan earned an M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023, and a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021. Alajlan was a 2024 artist-in-Residence at Bait Shouaib Art Residency in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Latifa Alajlan is represented by Franklin Parrasch Gallery.
I Love You More Than the Sky ( احبك كثر السماء ), 2024
oil, acrylic and graphite on linen
70 x 55 1/2 in | 177.8 x 140.9 cm
زّهرة (Flower), 2024
oil, acrylic and graphite on linen
40 x 30 in | 101.6 x 76.2 cm
Rose, 2023
oil, acrylic and graphite on linen
73 x 53 inches | 185.4 x 134.6 cm
II ( من طين ), 2023
oil and acrylic on linen
20 x 16 in | 50.8 x 40.6 cm
Fleshed, 2021
mixed media on canvas
24 x 20 inches | 60.9 x 50.8 cm
One, 2023
oil, acrylic and graphite on linen
55 x 55 inches | 139.7 x 139.7 cm
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
Latifa Alajlan: As Above, So Below, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY (March 21 - April 26, 2024)
Latifa Alajlan: Under My Skin, FLXST Contemporary, Chicago, IL (September 24—November 6, 2022)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
Long Walk Off a Short Pier: Abstraction and the Afterlife, Analog Diary, Beacon, NY (June 22—July 14, 2024)
Chromazones, Analog Diary, Beacon, NY (July 21—October 14, 2023)
Graduate Exhibition One, SAIC Galleries, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (March 1—8, 2023)
Eye-diolect: Susanne Doremus Selects, Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL (March 25—April 30, 2022)
Against Impossibility, FLXST Contemporary, Chicago, IL (February 12—March 28, 2021)
PRESS:
“Latifa Alajlan debuts at Art Basel with Franklin Parrasch Gallery.” Kuwait Times, December 9, 2023.
“Confrontational Color at Analog Diary.” Two Coats of Paint, September 6, 2023