Laylah Ali

Laylah Ali is an American artist known for her meticulous gouache paintings featuring the Greenheads — ambiguous, racially indeterminate figures caught in scenes of violence, authority, and role confusion. Her work draws on the visual language of comics and cartoons to address race, power, and social hierarchy with graphic precision and unsettling calm.

  • Laylah Ali, Projects 75, MoMA, 2002 — cover. Two Greenhead figures on a blue ground; one tall with a polka-dot shirt, one small with a spiked head. Offset-printed artist's book. Laylah Ali, Projects 75, MoMA, 2002 — interior spread. Left: five dark spherical heads with elongated shadows. Right: three tall Greenhead figures with spiked crowns and a small figure clinging to one.

    Laylah Ali — Projects 75, MoMA, 2002

    Laylah Ali — Projects 75, MoMA, 2002