Kayleah Aldrich

Kayleah Aldrich was born in Buffalo, New York and graduated in 2021 with her BFA from Alfred University’s School of Art and Design in The New York State College of Ceramics with minors in Business Administration, Arts Management, and Dance. Growing up in the performing arts and martial arts, Kayleah always had an interest in performance and the body. Working now with painting and dance, she has exhibited work multiple times on campus at Alfred University, as well as at California State University, The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts (Krakow, Poland), and The University of Saskatchewan (Canada) during the VERSO/RECTO International Print Exchange. Kayleah also studied abroad in Barcelona, Spain for two weeks at Art Print Residency doing copper plate etchings. She has also performed in numerous dance pieces for Alfred University Dance Theatre as well as choreographing three pieces, including a solo. She continues to make work in Buffalo. 

My experiences as a dancer and boxer shape my work. In my paintings, I present women’s bodies in a deconstructed, dynamic, and expressive manner. I find release, control, and connection to myself through movement. Contradictory to historical preconceptions of how women should submissively behave, I use bold line, forceful gesture, and jarring color combinations to counteract these presumptions and portray strength. Bodies are universal vehicles of expression, yet are infinitely unique in the ways each inner self projects through the bodily structures, acting as vessels for our true selves. The figures in my paintings exemplify the rejection of historical conventions, and proclaim directiveness, confidence, and strength through gesture.

Power is an intangible energy our Western society has rules as to how it is presented, accepted, and challenged. Women historically materialize in media not as themselves, but through the lens of men as caricatures of who they should be. As a little girl, I observed my “predestined” role of being a dainty, pretty, and passive feminine individual being laid out in front of me; there wasn’t room for power or strength in these presented rules. I paint to challenge these limiting directives.

These paintings are inspired by cubists and abstract expressionists through paint application to create the sense of dynamic, abstracted figures existing in a color field of a space. These paintings challenge the bravado, male dominated work made at that time. Abstract painters from that time showed off their masculinity and power in their work. I pull from their techniques to present a fresh, opposition through my own narrative as a woman. The vibrant imagery sits on heavy, large, and sturdy panels, acting just as the bodies painted on them do in the act of not being afraid of taking up their space. The women in my work act to defy their traditional submissive, one-dimensional roles by expressing roaring, bold energy through their bodies.