malaika favorite

Malaika Favorite

Geismar, LA

Malaika Favorite has been an artist her entire life. Rooted in identity, her work has always centered around Blackness. Using herself and family as the starting point, Favorite explores her experiences as well as the notion of ancestors as a symbol for a community, heritage, and culture.

Favorite’s paintings and mixed-media work use abstraction, shaped canvases, and found objects to explore this complicated and often conceptual investigation of the history and legacy of Black identity. Working in series, she will often create a collection of works exploring a theme. Once exhausted, she will move on to a new body of work. Her practice is not didactic, therefore there is room in each piece for the audience to bring their experience to the conversation.

A daughter of Louisiana, Favorite’s voice is an important inclusion in this exhibition. Her voice is rooted in Baton Rouge, exploring the ideas of projected and protected identities in We Wear the Mask, and the connection to place in This Feels Like Home. Her newest work, Colored People Pool was created specifically for And We Went; a reminder of the living history and presence of segregation and the power of the attempted swim-in continues to have in history and community.

Works on view