ARTIST STATEMENT
Aala Oni is a Black-Indigenous queer woman and multi-disciplinary artist exploring the many nuances of the interconnected carnage between presence and physicality and abstraction and dissociation through the dialogue of Black femme identity, sexuality, and ritual. Oni attributes her deepest moments of inspiration to cosmic communication with ancestral spirit guides, as well as her wildly passionate experiences here in the physical realm that inform her work around identity. Finding reprise in the chaos of merging her spiritual wisdom with her flawed humanity, Oni glides on the borderline of duality, in both her works and her personal life, stringing together a sublime intertwinement of mischief and mysticism internally juxtaposing critical consumerism and surveillance externally. Oni dissects each of these concepts by amplifying psycho/socio/political commentary through large mixed media works, compound visceral sculpture, and ritual performance pieces.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born and raised in northern California, Aala began experimenting with art at a young age. She pursued a degree in psychology before venturing into her original passion of visual art professionally. Primarily self taught, at 23 Aala attended California college of the arts in San Francisco on scholarship prior to the covid-19 pandemic, which led her to an untimely and indefinite leave of absence that allowed her to take her practice into her own hands. Since then, she has spent most of her active twenties between northern and southern California making work and creating community in Oakland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. More recently, Aala has had multiple international exhibitions and work sold in Paris, London, and Athens. In addition to that, Aala has completed a residency in the south of France in November of 2023 as well as a residency in Colombia from August-September 2024. Both of these locations and programs offered distinctly valuable experience to further inform and elevate Aala’s work. Oni is now based in New York City, practicing out of her Brooklyn studio, where she recently held a solo open studio show in July 2024 prior to her departure for her Colombian residency at artesumapaz.
© Aala Oni