Gallery Art Show
Laylah Amatullah Barrayn: From the First Note: Developing Icons, 2026
Essex
Express Newark
Artist Laylah Amatullah Barrayn re-examines the mid-century landscape of jazz through a layered reimagining of archival photography.
Oct 7th 5 to 10pm
Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Mary Lou Williams, 2026. Digital collage with archival photographic elements. Archival Source: Portrait of Mary Lou Williams at the piano by William P. Gottlieb, New York, N.Y. (c. 1946) | William P. Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress.
Artist: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn
Location: 4th Floor Express Newark
On View: Ongoing
From the First Note: Developing Icons re-examines the mid-century landscape of jazz through a layered reimagining of archival photography. By honoring the tactile, physical process of analog film—surfacing 35mm and 120 medium format negatives, slide transparencies, darkroom prints, loupes, light leaks, and exposed film sprockets—this series makes visible the material history of photographic memory: how Black genius was seen, framed, preserved, and illuminated.
54 Halsey St, Newark, NJ 07102, USA