In a spectacular finish to its Spring 2021 programming, Foto Relevance is pleased to announce Cartographies of Pattern, the gallery’s debut solo exhibition of works by Alia Ali, on view July 9 — September 4, 2021.
Featuring selections from Ali’s FLUX, FLOW, INDIGO, and حب (ḥub) // LOVE series, Cartographies of Pattern dives headfirst into the intricate and often unreconcilable political, historical, and economic legacies of textiles. Considering everything from the expansive global trade routes traveled by certain fabrics, to the classification and nomenclature of particular prints, to the communicative potential of a pattern’s symbolism, Ali ushers viewers into a conversation about colonialism, cultural cross-pollination, and borders that simultaneously unite and divide people.
About the artist:
Alia Ali (Arabic: عاليه علي // Sabean: ????????????????????|????????????) is a Yemeni-Bosnian-US multi-media artist. Having traveled to sixty-seven countries, lived in and between seven, and grown up among five languages, her most comfortable mode of communication is through photography, video, and installation. Her work explores cultural binaries, challenges culturally sanctioned oppression, and confronts the dualistic barriers of conflicted notions of gender, politics, media, and citizenship. Ali critiques linguistics and inherited political structures and narratives, while simultaneously attempting to counter the polarization and miscommunication that imperils communities across the world, encouraging viewers to confront their own prejudices.
A graduate of Wellesley College and the CalArts, Ali's work has been featured in the Financial Times, Le Monde, Vogue, and Hyperallergic. She has won numerous awards and has exhibited internationally. Ali also serves on the board of Youth of the World Together (YWT) in Sana'a, Yemen, and Clockshop in Los Angeles, California. Her work is in collections at Princeton University, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Tuscon Museum of Art, and numerous international private collections.
Alia Ali lives and works in Los Angeles and Marrakech, and is currently in residency at the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program (RAiR) in Roswell, New Mexico.
