Is Anything the Matter? Drawings by Laylah Ali at UMass

Source: UMass Fine Arts Center

Is Anything the Matter?, a new exhibition of drawings by Laylah Ali will open at the University Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA) at UMass on February 14 and run through May 9. There will be an opening reception on February 13, a gallery talk by Professor Karen Kucynski on February 19, and talk by the artist on April 9 (details below and here).

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 museum’s Main and West galleries, and allows visitors to discover stylistic and contextual similarities, contrasts, and shifts in her drawings over time.  

About the Artist
Laylah Ali was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1968, and she currently lives and works in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Ali has previously held 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. Her work was exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2003) and the Whitney Biennial (2004).  

The University Museum of Contemporary Art is the second venue for this traveling exhibition. It first opened in 2024 at the Cathy and Jessie Marion Art Gallery at the State University of New York in Fredonia. The third venue, Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, will show Is anything the matter? in the fall of 2025.  

Free tickets for the events below can be found here.

Opening Reception for Is Anything the Matter? Drawings by Laylah Ali and High Five/Take Five. Feb 13 2025 5:00 p.m. UMCA
Contemporary visual artist Laylah Ali presents a body of more than a hundred drawings exploring race, gender, and power. And the dynamic, interactive exhibition, High Five/Take Five, invites viewers to slow down, look closely, and engage with five remarkable works from the museum’s permanent collection.

Gallery Talk with Professor of Contemporary and Modern Art Karen Kurcynski
February 19, 4-5 p.m. UMCA
Join Karen Kurczynski, Professor of Contemporary and Modern art in the UMass History of Art and Architecture Department, for a gallery talk on Ali’s exhibition.

Kurczynski wrote an essay titled “Power in Play: The Drawings of Laylah Ali” for the exhibition catalog, which accompanies the exhibition as it travels to three venues over the course of two years. Ali’s drawings are also subject in Kurcynski’s book project, “Drawing in Color: Power and Vulnerability in Art of the 1990s.”

“[The drawings] range from colorful imaginative portraits to comic-inspired scenarios that comment on everything from racial violence to gender politics in contemporary society,” says Kurczynski.

Laylah Ali Artist Talk. April 9, 2025 6:00 p.m. UMass Old Chapel
Is anything the matter? Drawings by Laylah Ali includes more than one hundred drawings dating from 1993 to 2020. Join Ali for an artist talk about her exhibition.

The University Museum of Contemporary Art is located at 151 Presidents Drive, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003 View map 

Regular Museum Hours
Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon – 4 p.m.; and first Thursdays until 8 p.m.