Y. Malik Jalal

Y. Malik Jalal begins a residency at Fonderie Darling in a period of transition after leaving his studio as a recent graduate of the Yale School of Art's MFA in Sculpture. During this time devoted to research-creation, Y. Malik Jalal plans to explore welding and casting techniques, in various specialized venues around the city. This production residency will also be crucial in the preparation of a solo exhibition to be held in October at the MARCH gallery in New York. In addition, the Yale residency at the Fonderie Darling marks the artist’s first visit to Canada that promises rich encounters between Y. Malik Jalal  and emerging and established players on the Montreal art scene.  

The antagonism present between blackness - what Édouard Glissant called négritude - and the world is eternally bound to the notion of personhood. Personhood can only survive through a radical act of existence, for according to Y. Malik Jalal, the claim of all peoples to humanity is validated by the dispossession of others.

Reflecting on these oppositions and dualities, Y. Malik Jalal's sculptural practice is a continued act of speculation. The artist frequently works with iron and steel whose origins are Hellenic; the myth, dialectic and tool that surround the history of materials are at the heart of his work. Although associated in the Western world with ancient Greece, the understanding of the mythology associated with his materials of choice is equally present in the forging traditions of the Yoruba, Fan, Dogon and West African society as a whole. Y. Malik Jalal is interested in making objects and images that exist in a space beyond the aforementioned antagonism. In his artistic universe, there is a nation, however abstract and intangible, which is an integral part of his practice. The work of Y. Malik Jalal's work functions as a contribution to this world and to the ancient, multi-cultural tradition of metal, giving shape to blackness itself.

Biography

“My first real memory was attending my father’s graduation. I was 3 years old. I was disoriented and in awe. I remember we had seats that were on the upper level and which made my dad, dressed in a vibrant dashiki with a matching kufi, easy to spot. I remember the shift in my disposition. The feeling of resolve. It was as if the exact moment of my self-actualization was anticipated. His decision to evoke his origins during the ceremony, a ritual that we in the West hold with such regard, was not to remind or confront those ignorant to it, but was meant for me, to establish that I came from somewhere.”

Y. Malik Jalal's maternal family is from Savannah, where he was born in March of 1994. He and his family moved to Atlanta where he has lived ever since. Y. Malik Jalal received his B.A. from Oglethorpe University in 2016. While attending Oglethorpe, he apprenticed at a blacksmith shop, where he became a foreman and shop manager.

In 2019, Y. Malik Jalal had solo exhibitions at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center, the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center and the MARCH gallery in Manhattan. He has also curated several exhibitions for museums and private spaces. In 2024, Y. Malik Jalal graduated with his MFA from the Yale School of Art.

Recent exhibitions

2024	The Apple Stretching, group exhibition, Helena Anrather, New York, NY The sea swept the sandcastles away. (To wake up in Atlanta!), exposition de groupe, March Gallery New York, NY
2023	Made Visible: Freedom Dreams, group exhibition, Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven CT I’ve Gone to Look, group exhibition, America Murmurs Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Crusading the Specter, group exhibition, Yossi Milo New York, NY Old Sun, New Sun, group exhibition, Et al Gallery, San Francisco, CA In Summers Teeth, group exhibition, Silke Linder New York, NY
2022	BENT, solo exhibition, March Gallery, New York, NY
2021	Altars to the Liver, solo exhibition, Institute 193, Lexington, KY Of Joy and Terror, solo exhibition, Coleman Art Center - York, AL