Hassan Ali
ONE can learn just about anything online. Aliya, or “Yah Yah,” a 29-year-old artist based in Claxton Bay, learned how to paint and sell her art online. Yah Yah says that she was a quiet child and art was her way of voicing her inner world; that art was a way of feeding her imagination and a coping mechanism for her. After ending her secondary education at form five, Yah Yah went straight into the world of work where she worked various customer service, administrative and call centre jobs. She says that she only really began to pursue art as a profession at age 22.
Yah Yah’s practice predominantly consists of realistic portraits and landscapes. She points to two factors that motivated her to work in this style:
The first is her perception that artists with a photorealistic style/a style which mimcs photorealism are generally regarded more highly than artists who work in other styles;
The second is that she noticed that the market for people buying art generally consisted of people who wanted photorealistic work, specifically portraiture of family and loved ones as well as traditional landscape scenery.
[caption id="attachment_1155708" align="alignnone" width="977"] Pouis and Poincianas -[/caption]
Seven years later and Yah Yah barely has to leave the comfort of her home to make a living doing what she loves. She confesses that throughout her life she has been isolated from the local art scene. Yah Yah has marketed all of her work on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok while using various couriers to deliver work to clients. She says that one of the most important things, especially for international clients, is setting up an online payment method which works internationally and locally – like PayPal.
Her first appearance in a gallery was at Horizons in June 2024 during their “New Faces” show. Yah Yah has also been producing prints of her work at Horizons for some time. She feels right at home in the Mucurapo Road gallery and said it seemed right to have her first solo show, Colours of the Coast, there.
As for the actual contents of the show, one will find just over 20 oil-on-canvas paintings detailing the land and local life. Last Light Contemplation, Siesta, and Tide Chasers all feature a central motif of the show – fishermen. Yah Yah says that growing up she spent a lot of time around Orange Valley. She would spend time watching sunsets to clear her head here and, sometimes, fishermen would occasionally teach her a thing or two about the trade.
Besides the fishermen, many local scenes, natural and man-made, are featured. Sun-dried features an old-fashioned house with clothes drying on a line in the sun. Pouis & Poincianas features exactly what the title promises. In addition to these pastoral, idyllic scenes associated with the coast, Yah Yah has quite a few paintings featuring steelpan players.
[caption id="attachment_1155709" align="alignnone" width="1000"] A Tropical Trio -[/caption]
Yah Yah says that she wanted to have her first show be an expression of the things she grew up
