Malaika Favorite: The Alchemist

In a new exhibition at the Hilliard University Art Museum, artist Malaika Favorite's depictions of living scenes—typically recollecting days inhabited by her ancestors, working in the sugarcane fields—burst and bustle with her signature sense of energy. Integrating elements of folk and contemporary art in a sort of alchemy, Favorite's found object paintings are both down to earth and elevated, relatable and mystical. Often painting on washboards rather than canvases, she has long been concerned with humanity and its symbols. The washboards represent the labor and the intimacy of her ancestors, of her grandmother and her aunt who worked as laundresses while her mother ran the household, layers and layers of country, faith, memory, and racism. Favorite's work will be on display at the Hilliard through June 3, 2020. hilliardmuseum.org. 

[Read Ruth Laney's profile on Malaika Favorite in this article from our April 2019 issue.]