About
Me

Bio

Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Alajia McKizia is an afro-indigenous multidisciplinary artist. Alajia was a 2020 Inside/Outside fellow at the Union of Contemporary Art. Alajia also served as a studio assistant for Oakland based artist Nyame Brown for the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts Internship program. Her work has been featured in many group exhibitions in Nebraska including the Union, the Bemis Center, KANEKO, Tugboat Gallery, MaMo, The Bay, and a curated group exhibition by Alajia for Amplify Arts titled “Silk.” She has done solo work at local nonprofits and public art projects for Benson First Friday, One Omaha, the City of Omaha, and The Study. Her work has also been published in Time + Space, and the Hi-Fi magazine. She has been featured in performances by African Culture Connection and .tbd Dance collective including “Language for a Living,” a performance for Caroline Kent’s exhibition “ Disappearance of the world, appearance of the world” at the Union for Contemporary Art. 

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Artist Statement

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Through multidisciplinary practices, my work is defined as “energetically storytelling through trauma informed art.”

 

Movement and performance are a reclamation of my body and spirit in spaces where I have felt unseen, and violated. It guides me through the illusion of fear, and is used as a spiritual practice for ancestral connection. 

 

Visually, I use recycled materials (clothing scraps, jewerly, paper, etc) to explore our relationships and attachment with them.  Our bodies create energy that transfers to materials which I portray as an "invisible burden." Taking apart, and recreating from these items are a metaphoric process of transmutation, detachment, as well as coping. 

 

Through textiles and fiber work, I explore interactions with my blackness and white supremacy within religion, systems, and everyday culture. 

 

Art and spirituality merge in my world as a space for personal healing and affirmation of my lived experience.