about
Alyssa Khalifa (b. 1996, Michigan) is a mixed-media artist based in Philadelphia, PA. She obtained her BFA in painting and sculpture from Aquinas College (Grand Rapids, MI) in 2019 and MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Philadelphia, PA) in 2022. Her figurative work establishes multicultural and queer representation from an identity-based lens and gaze.
Khalifa has participated in numerous local and regional exhibitions. In addition to her exhibition work, she has over seven years of experience teaching various audiences. Her teaching background includes instructing people with disabilities at the non-profit organization "Artists Creating Together", working with undergraduate students as a Teaching Assistant at PAFA, and leading multiple painting and drawing courses for PAFA's pre-college summer programs. Khalifa currently teaches full-time at Mastery Charter High School and is actively developing an art curriculum for high school students in urban education. In addition to her teaching experience, Khalifa has been awarded scholarships and grants, including the Hilda E. Bretzlaff 2018, Hazel Scholarship Prize 2021, and Fine Art Venture Fund 2022.
statement
As a painter and sculptor, I contemplate feelings of intimacy stemming from cultural differences, love, and longing. Using acrylic and oil paint, plaster, and mixed media, bodies are described through painterly juxtapositions of raw expressionism, and well-observed, tender figuration. Highly saturated atmospheric colors envelop subjects in both domestic interiors as well as outdoor urban spaces. Elements such as the inclusion of Arabic text, or symbols like the Egyptian lily, allude to different facets of my identity. Figurative sculptures drawing from Western motifs, like ‘the kiss’, are composed of plaster and mixed materials. The surface of the sculpted bodies mimics the texture and materiality seen in the paintings. Bulky bodies smothered in encrusted materials bring forth tension between the soft bodies in the paintings and their physical manifestations.
Although the work ranges from a lone figure in solitude to impassioned moments with a partner, they all encompass the theme of vulnerability. Intimate moments invite the viewer in, but the felt love, or alternatively, vulnerable solitude, leaves one contemplating: am I meant to keep looking?