Mustafa Ali Clayton

Mustafa Ali Clayton (b. 1978, Los Angeles, CA) is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist who uses organic and sustainable materials to create ceramic busts as well as wooden assemblage plinths, which are an integral part of his work. In his practice, he combines traditional and contemporary techniques while incorporating elements of history and lineage through oil painting, quilting, beading, ceramics, and assemblage. Using materials like fibers, clay, wax, wood, beads, and pigments, Clayton expands upon his intimate, labor-intensive process, to reach balance. The works frequently highlight distorted physical attributes, such as wide eyes, small ears, button noses, or warped facial proportions that the artist utilizes to direct attention to the subtle distinctions between reality and the artificial. Some anime influences are evident and with mirrored ceramic busts and wooden assemblages, he challenges the concept of classical portraiture. Clayton's works reframe figurative traditions as acts of soft defiance within a historical context.

While making Clayton’s piece Shoshana, Clayton drew inspiration from artists like Jamel Shabazz and Gordon Parks, whose work beautifully documents all the ranges of Black people and their hair and clothing styles. Hair serves as a constant inspiration in his work, and he is focused on recreating all the unique natural styles of Black hair through the natural material of clay.

Clayton has exhibited in the US and abroad in Europe.  He has won several awards and grants such as the 2024 Frieze Acquisition fund recipient, in 2020 The Artist + Activist Relief Fund Grant and The Soze Foundation, TaskForce and Invisible Hand. Clayton’s works are in the permanent collection California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA and the collection of Rubell Family Foundation, in Palm Beach, FL and Washington, D.C and in the private collection of Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody, Palm Beach, FL. Recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition at Next Contemporary in Toronto Canada, Art Basel, Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach with Jenkins Johnson Gallery, and Block Party II at Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, NY. In 2024, Clayton was in the summer residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.