Latifa Alajlan (b. 1998, Kuwait City, Kuwait) channels elements of Kuwaiti culture in her paintings through use of patterning and form. Alajlan’s latticework-like underpaintings and gestural use of impasto reflect prevalent motifs in Middle Eastern architecture, including places of worship, government buildings, historical sites, and monuments. While Alajlan’s mode of abstraction is respective of the history of non-representative art in the Middle East, her expressive, atmospheric works represent a distinct and somatically evocative, conceptually driven practice. Flight-like gestures intermingle with identifiable idioms, calling systems of structure into question.
Latifa Alajlan earned an M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023, and a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021. Alajlan was a 2024 artist-in-Residence at Bait Shouaib Art Residency in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.