Rugiyatou Jallow
Rugiyatou Ylva Jallow (b.1990 in Stockholm, Sweden), currently residing in Los Angeles, is a Swedish-Gambian visual artist known primarily for her work with acrylic, oil paint and her use of threads.
Her bold self-portraits ensnare emotivity as each layer resonates the artist's internal and outward struggle with feeling distanced from the world around her as she tries to reconcile the dichotomies of bridging multiple cultures as a mixed woman.
Rugiyatou was raised by her Gambian father and step mother who imparted West African values and culture while residing her whole life in Sweden. The artist credits her Swedish mother and grandmother as being early artistic influences in her life, inspiring her to start painting at an early age. Her upbringing became her inspiration to portray black subjectivity and explore her half-Swedish and half-Gambian identity, and the complexity of belonging.
Jallow’s use of color to portray black, white, and mixed skin, as well as applying threads, is acting as a visual representation of equality and connection across races. The floating hands are the womans ancestors protecting and embracing them. And the bright colors specifically are a further representation of the artist’s connection to nature and feeling of belonging on this Earth.
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Deliverance, 2025 -
Veil between worlds, 2025
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Touched, 2025
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Coming into being, 2024
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The quiet desperation of acceptance, 2024
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Magic under the sunset, 2024
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They were now forever, 2024
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Floating in Time, 2023
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Protective Style, 2023
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ten : an anniversary
September 11 - October 18, 2025 New YorkRead more -
Twilight/Prelude
All Seeing Seneca, Mevlana Lipp, Edgar Serrano, Sydnie Jimenez, Rugiyatou Jallow, Chloe Chiasson July 18 - August 9, 2024Read more -
Rugiyatou Jallow: And Her Eyes Were Held by the Sun
October 19 - November 22, 2023 New YorkRead more -
Rugiyatou Jallow: Find Her on the Trail of Truth
January 5 - February 4, 2023 New YorkARTIST STATEMENT Our skin does not define us. My paintings will transport you into a world of questions and pride. Growing up, my father would constantly speak of the pride...Read more
RUGIYATOU JALLOW
Born in 1990 in Stockholm, SE
Currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA
EDUCATION
2016 Computer Animation, A.A., Glendale College, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Graphic Design, A.A., Santa Monica College, Los Angeles, CA
2009 Nacka Gymnasium, Stockholm, SE
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 NeueHouse, Venice, CA
2024 Sharif Bey and Rugiyatou Jallow (two-person presentation), 1-54: Contemporary African Art Fair, London, UK
2023 And Her Eyes Were Held by the Sun, albertz benda, New York, NY
Days of Daydreams, F2T Gallery, Milan, IT
Find Her on the Trail of Truth, albertz benda, New York, NY
2022 Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY
2021 The Surrender, The Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY
UPPVÄXTEN I SVERIGE, Carl Kostyal, Stockholm, SE
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Creative Confluence, PhillipsX, Los Angeles, CA
Beautiful Scars, Jonathan Carver Moore Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2024 Twilight/Prelude, albertz benda, New York, NY
Diane Von Furstenberg Flagship & Gallery, New York, NY
Déjà Vu, Abigail Ogilvy, Los Angeles, CA
2023 New Contemporaries, Residency Gallery, Inglewood, CA
2021 Allouche Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Blackity Black Friday, Sole Folks, Los Angeles, CA
RESIDENCIES AND AWARDS
2023 Mack Art Foundation, New York, NY