Biography, Artist’s Book and more:
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A Few of My Favorites by Armando Alleyne
Winner of The Most Beautiful Swiss Books Award by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, in 2021 (awarded in 2022). More info here.
Published by Edition Patrick Frey, 2021
With an essay by Tiona Nekkia McClodden
Book design by Other Means
Softcover, 244 pages, 155 images
ISBN: 978-3-907236-25-3
How to order your copy:
North + South America
Order here
Rest of the world
Order here
Support your local bookstore
If you prefer the in-store experience, head to your favorite bookshop and ask them to place an order for you. Use the following information: A Few of My Favorites by Armando Alleyne, ISBN 978-3-907236-25-3.
Black-owned & independent bookstores
If you don’t have a favorite bookstore yet or if you’d like to learn about those new to you, dive into these lists by Oprah Daily and the Literary Hub. This platform, Bookshop, is also helpful in purchasing from and finding local, independent bookstores.
A Few of My Favorites by Armando Alleyne
Winner of The Most Beautiful Swiss Books Award by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, in 2021 (awarded in 2022). More info here.
Published by Edition Patrick Frey, 2021
With an essay by Tiona Nekkia McClodden
Book design by Other Means
Softcover, 244 pages, 155 images
ISBN: 978-3-907236-25-3
How to order your copy:
North + South America
Order here
Rest of the world
Order here
Support your local bookstore
If you prefer the in-store experience, head to your favorite bookshop and ask them to place an order for you. Use the following information: A Few of My Favorites by Armando Alleyne, ISBN 978-3-907236-25-3.
Black-owned & independent bookstores
If you don’t have a favorite bookstore yet or if you’d like to learn about those new to you, dive into these lists by Oprah Daily and the Literary Hub. This platform, Bookshop, is also helpful in purchasing from and finding local, independent bookstores.
—Artist Statement & Biography
“I don’t only focus on jazz musicians. I also paint my family or iconic personalities such as Félix Trinidad, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Amadou Diallo and The Notorious B.I.G. who in one rendition is carrying the cross with Etta James as an angel. In a painting collage of Biggie, I placed a Tropicana Juice packaging where a handkerchief would be. With the jazz musicians I’d do the same; I collage cereal and cracker boxes to the subject matter. This reflects my belief that music is fortifying.”
—Armando Alleyne, 2019
Armando Alleyne’s painted and collaged renditions of jazz musicians, Afro-Latin singers, boxers, but also family members and friends have a rhythm all-their-own. Parallel to his practice of painting portraits of Black icons, he allows elements of his lived experience to take form in his work. Never shying away from the seminal, the sensual or the political, Alleyne’s lifetime of paintings tell a story of how we are subject to our city and how in it we can search for the tools to heal. Armando Alleyne (b. 1959, New York) grew up in Lower Manhattan and graduated from The City College of New York with a B.A. in Education and Fine Arts, in 1983. He lives and works in Brooklyn.
—Exhibitions & Publications
Alleyne’s work has most recently been included in Refuge, an online group show curated by Nicole Mouriño for 440 Gallery (on view on Artsy through July 31, 2020). Throughout the decades, his work has been shown at Sage Center Harlem, Gallery M, Chi Chiz, the Bronx River Gallery, Clover's Fine Art Gallery, Metropolitan Community Church, Sarah Lawrence College, the Jazz Gallery and Black Lawyers Association, among others. He has illustrated numerous publications including Blackheart 2: The Prison Issue—A Journal of Writing and Graphics by Black Gay Men (1984), Black Music, Black Poetry: Blues and Jazz's Impact on African American Versification (Gordon E. Thompson, 2014), Kwanzaa in the Gay and Lesbian Family (Imani Rashid, 2011) and Saving the World from Self–Or Should I Say Selfishness (Philip Regman, 2010).—Events
February 10 – March 11, 2023Solo exhibition “Moments of Admiration” curated by Clarence Johns. Carracci Art, New York, NY
May 20 – June 25, 2022
Solo exhibition “Body and Soul” curated by Nicole Mouriño and Clarence Johns. Carracci Art, New York, NY
May 20, 2022
Book Party & Opening Reception at Carracci Art, 368 Broadway, #305, New York, NY 10013, 6-8pm
February 17, 2022
Freel Library Author Talk Series: Artistic Development and Contextual (Hi)Stories by Armando Alleyne, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
—Press
October 12, 2022“Armando Alleyne Remembers Lunchtime with Basquiat” by Michael A. Cummings for Interview Magazine
December 7, 2021
“Armando Alleyne: A Few of My Favorites [REVIEW]” by Nicole Mouriño for Intervenxions, the online publication of The Latinx Project at NYU
July 23, 2020
“In new exhibit, artists interpret forms of ‘refuge’” by Sara Krevoy for the Brooklyn Downtown Star
