Khalilah Birdsong Featured On Air Mail

Khalilah Birdsong’s path has not been straightforward. Born in Ohio in 1977, the artist grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, studied at Goldsmiths in London, moved to Maui, Hawaii, and then back to London. She worked as a director of communications at Tyler Perry Studios for 10 years before beginning a career as an artist, in 2012. Birdsong’s pieces can now be found in the homes of Monica Kaufman Pearson and Michelle and Barack Obama. She makes large, highly textured, abstract paintings that draw inspiration from the environment around her. Titled after Audre Lorde’s 1978 poem “A Litany for Survival” (it begins: “For those of us who live at the shoreline / standing upon the constant edges of decision / crucial and alone”), this solo show contemplates how we change and shift our life circumstances—something Birdsong knows a thing or two about. —Jeanne Malle

Khalilah Birdsong, Within the Bedrock, 2023.