Jayden 

Alfred Conteh made this portrait of a young man, titled ‘Jayden,’ with colored pencils, a medium readily associated with childhood and accessible art making. Yet the effect here is far from artless. Look closely, and you will notice an astonishing density of marks, hatching and cross-hatching, that build up the planes of the face and the texture of the hair. The background also receives this focused attention, with a mottled atmospheric effect created by Conteh’s persistent, painstaking process. There’s an inherent contradiction in the work: Conteh uses a humble material, but with immense labor. This aligns ‘Jayden’ with other works by Conteh, such as his ‘After the Storm’ quilts, that reflect on community, labor, and the politics of representation. By combining a fine art approach with everyday materials, he elevates both.