Qualeasha Wood

A conversation with Philadelphia-based artist Qualeasha Wood, whose multidisciplinary practice spans textiles, digital media, and performance. Qualeasha’s work investigates Black femme identity, Catholic iconography, and the psychological effects of the internet, often rendered through intricately tufted and woven tapestries. Her recent solo exhibition Malware at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London presents a series of glitch-heavy, hyper-pixelated works that reflect on digital anxiety, image control, and online mediation. In this episode, Alayo and Qualeasha discuss art school at RISD, the politics of self-presentation in virtual spaces, and the development of her debut performance bedrot, staged during the opening night of Malware.

This special season focuses on the themes which are at the heart of Alayo’s upcoming book, Reframing Blackness: What’s Black About History of Art?, which unpacks the relationship between Blackness and “Western” art history through the lenses of: Museums, the curriculum, feminist art movements, muses and exhibitions. In this season Alayo will speak to artists who re-think, reposition and reframe Blackness and Black figures in this context.

Pre-Order Reframing Blackness here.

Keep up with us:

Qualeasha Wood: @qualeasha

Alayo Akinkugbe: @ablackhistoryofart @alayoakinkugbe