Jada McAliley

Jada McAliley is a young and dedicated visual artist with a background in a variety of artistic mediums, including graphite pencils, oil paint, and B&W film. The main concepts explored in her work are the complexities of her relationship with family and her relationship with self in relation to her Black identity. She captures the small, intimate moments shared with family members in her work. In works pertaining to her relationship with self, she depicts personal moments through the use of repetition of her figure and experimentation with translucency. She recently graduated high school (2024) from George Washington Carver Center A&T in Maryland. In high school, she practiced figure painting and photography. She will be majoring in painting at Maryland Institute College of Art for the next four years.


Artist Statement

My work uses realism and attention to detail, while also maintaining a stylistic approach and creative use of color, value, and texture. These techniques are applied to a variety of mediums like graphite, oil paint, and B&W film photography. While using these mediums, I experiment and push the boundaries of what you can do with them. Collectively, these elements create narratives and imagery expressing the complexities within the relationships with my family and myself, in relation to my Black identity. I enjoy capturing those small intimate moments that I cherish and share with my family members in my work. Drawings like My Baby Is Not a Baby Anymore highlight the close-knit nature of my relationship with family but acknowledge the growing physical distance between us as I get older. Pieces like Spades invite viewers to experience and almost physically be a part of traditions within my family, like playing spades at family reunions, and the deep connections felt at a simple card table. Other works that only use self-portraiture, like Noise Cancellation Headphones, invite the viewer into my own personal space, where I’m disassociated from everything happening outside of me. Common visual elements like translucency and repetition of the figure show a passage of time and multiple aspects of myself. Family and relationship with self are themes that I will continue to build upon in future works.


www.Jadamcalileyart.weebly.com