Photo credit: Candice Majors | candicemajors.com

Ashley Ja’nae is an interdisciplinary visual artist and educator. She creates imagery centered around belonging, care, and intimacy through people’s relationships with our hair, ourselves, and our communities. Her artistic practice explores drawing, illustration, sculpture, printmaking, mixed media, and video art. She received her BFA in Art & Design Education from Pratt Institute and studied at Moore College of Art and Design in their MFA in Socially-Engaged Studio Art program. She’s exhibited her work nationally and internationally, including at the Brooklyn Museum, Icebox Project Space, Galerie Kritiku, and the Anacostia Arts Center.

My work explores the materiality and resonance of Black hair as a catalyst for belonging, self-definition, and collective transformation. I use drawing, video, sound, and installation to examine the textures, connectivity, and life force of hair across the African Diaspora. Hair serves as both an entry point and a portal for investigating the intersections of the personal and political, the individual and the collective.
​I create objects and gatherings that invite reflection, interaction, and the exchange of knowledge, care, and vulnerability. At the core of my practice is the belief that the construction of ourselves, our communities, and our futures is collectively created and cared for. Through slow processes and shared rituals, I work to deepen intimacy and self-knowledge, while fostering spaces where tenderness and interdependence are central to collective well-being.
My practice emphasizes the interconnectedness of personal and collective experiences. I focus on making art that reflects the lived experiences of Black folks, exploring the tensions and tenderness between our self-determination and the communal care that sustains us. In each piece, I aim to hold space for the softness, expansion, and abundance of people, inviting others to experience art as both a method of self-reflection and a tool for co-creating more inclusive, liberated worlds.