Kayla Mahaffey: Vibrant Imagination
Kayla Mahaffey is a Chicago-based visual artist who came into the spotlight as her work emerged from the politically and racially charged climate following the year 2020. Her solo show, which opened at Thinkspace Projects in May of 2020, sits right at the historical fold of the latest spark of social activism in America since the 1960s: between the shelter-in-place movement and the murder of George Floyd.
The works of Kayla Mahaffey are highly colorful and center on depictions of black children set in cartoon-like attire and environments. She uses her art to contemplate youth, fantasy, and creativity as she strives to help her viewers reimagine the environment around us through the eyes and imagination of a child. This creative exercise seeks to highlight social and racial injustices in society but does so in a manner that reinvigorates some hope.
In an interview with Juxatpotz Arts and Culture magazine, Kayla Mahaffey cites her mother’s support and her love for animation and cartoons as the main driving forces that inspired her to be an artist while growing up. Like many visual artists today, Mahaffey sees in animation the potential to tell much deeper stories about familiar topics.
Mahaffey also admits that hope, resilience, and facing the trials of life are important themes in her work that she owes to her mother’s hardworking nature. Her cartoon-like characters, often black children, depict hope despite the turmoil. She tries to suggest to her viewers that no positive change or growth can be possible without resilience and imagination.
In the same interview, Mahaffey admits that growing up in Chicago has also been a major influence on her artwork. She speaks of the soul, charm, and richness of life in Chicago that often goes unnoticed in the hustle and bustle of big city life. This soul she attempts to depict in her art and bring back to the citizens of Chicago to invigorate their love for the city.
Moreover, Mahaffey tells the interviewer about the struggles of growing up in the south side of Chicago as a black female and how this position in society has greatly informed her art. She strives to depict both the turmoil and the hope that characterizes the life of black females and black people and is driven by the need to open up a window onto aspects of life in Chicago that she believes go unnoticed.
Mahaffey uses her art to depict black children living in the fantasy worlds of their beautiful and colorful imaginations. The serious expressions of her subjects while they are lost in play seem to portray an unbridled curiosity and a sense of alienation of these children from their fantastic surroundings. All in all, her characters represent hope and resilience in the face of political and systemic violence and alienation. She strives to make these characters both personally relatable and stand-ins for larger political and social statements.
With an ever-increasing fan base since 2020, multiple unique paintings, and a few exhibitions under the belt, Kayla Mahaffey is becoming more and more popular in the Chicago art scene. Simply put, you do not want to miss out on what this artist has in store for her followers next.
