Biography, Artist’s Book and more:
Order my artist’s book:
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).
Published by Edition Patrick Frey, 2021
With an essay by Tiona Nekkia McClodden
With a contribution by Sedon Paul Pepper
Co-edited by Stephanie Rebonati & Laura Serejo Genes
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).
Published by Edition Patrick Frey, 2021
With an essay by Tiona Nekkia McClodden
With a contribution by Sedon Paul Pepper
Co-edited by Stephanie Rebonati & Laura Serejo Genes
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
Alleyne’s work has most recently been shown in the 2023 solo exhibition Moments of Admiration, curated by Clarence Johns at Carracci Art in New York. Alleyne’s work has also been shown in the solo show Body and Soul, curated by Nicole Mouriño and Clarence Johns, also at Carracci Art. Alleyne was also included in Refuge, an online group show curated by Nicole Mouriño for 440 Gallery in the summer of 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.– Publications
Alleyne’s first artist’s book, A Few of My Favorites, was published by Edition Patrick Frey, in 2021. In 2023, Alleyne’s art and poetry were included in When Language Broke Open: An Anthology of Queer & Trans Black Writers of Latin American Descent, edited by Alan Pelaez Lopez, a 2022-2023 Miriam Jiménez Román Fellow. The volume centers on the writing, visual, and graphic art of 44 contemporary writers across Latin America, the Caribbean, and their diasporas. Alleyne 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
April 21, 2024, 6–8pmLet’s Talk Books with Edition Patrick Frey! Mini book performances at Bungee Space in the Lower East Side. Armando Alleyne performs together with Sedon Paul Pepper, a close collaborator, and Laura Serejo Genes who co-edited A Few of My Favorites.
April 13, 2024, 5–6pm
Cover Collage Workshop with Armando Alleyne. Other Islands Book Fair at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
April 10, 2024, 6–7:30pm (Virtual)
Queer and Trans Afro-Latinx Voices: Join us for an online panel celebrating the publication of When Language Broke Open: An Anthology of Queer & Trans Black Writers of Latin American Descent, edited by Alan Pelaez Lopez.
February 10 – March 11, 2023
Solo 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
