Ya-LaFord
Ya La’Ford (born in 1979 in Bronx, NY) is a versatile artist, educator, muralist, and above all, a conduit between the visual realm and the intricate complexities of human communities. Working across a wide range of media including paint, sculpture, installation, video, and sound, she weaves layered meanings to engage with the universal language of art and create transformative experiences that inspire communal growth.
La’Ford holds a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts from The Art Institute of Boston, and she also earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. As a first-generation American of Jamaican heritage, she gracefully navigates between her cultural roots and marginalized communities, utilizing the power of art as a medium of connection. Central to the artist’s mission is the creation of art and spatial experiences that profoundly revolutionize the social, cultural, and historical contexts of creative expression within the human journey.
(read Ya La’Ford’s full biography)
Impenetrable Cosmos, 2022
Acrylic, ink, pigment, glue,
alcohol, egg, bleach, heat, resin
& natural weathering on canvas, 21 x 12″
Image courtesy of the artist and Galerie Myrtis
Ya La’Ford (born in 1979 in Bronx, NY) is a versatile artist, educator, muralist, and above all, a conduit between the visual realm and the intricate complexities of human communities. Working across a wide range of media including paint, sculpture, installation, video, and sound, she weaves layered meanings to engage with the universal language of art and create transformative experiences that inspire communal growth.
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In 2015, I began a visual series built on my curiosities, experiences, memories, and thought processes; gathering what I have known to be true to me at that moment became the foundation and framework of my artistry. I began with a collection of murals that centered images of Black women, each depicting who I was, who I needed, and what I was learning at that time. The purpose is to express and share my joys, frustrations, and prideful moments with Black Women. My painting series depicts an array of Black Men and Women usually existing in a resting position, focusing on their facial features accent by swings of color and thick paint strokes. In this series of works titled the “Blk Women Period,” I see potential subjects and respond to them organically. Attracted by the subject’s gesture, I style the figure in thick texture and color patterns in a nonlinear imaginative scene. My goal is not to expose a range of emotions but to evoke feelings within the viewer.