Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes

Maikoiyo Anabi Alley-Barnes (b. 1977, Seattle) is a multimedia artist, curator, filmmaker, writer, and designer exploring the resonance of genetic cultural memory through the mundane and the mystical. Alley-Barnes’ practice offers meditative narratives that reflect his fascination with, admiration for, and immersion in the aesthetic, ritual and continuum that is the Black Metaphysical. Be it through his headdress and mask work, PELTS, or unique method of sculpture termed Refuse Alchemy, Alley-Barnes’ practice brings a more visceral, lush, and sensual sensibility to our day-to-day lives.

Alley-Barnes has exhibited in the United States and internationally. In August of 2023, he unveiled his first large scale public art installation titled “Sent, Scent, Sense”. This work is the result of a photograph of one of the artist's sculptures printed on vellum and layered onto a hand-drawn Kente cloth-coded pattern. The final work is realized as a digitized, large-scale print applied to the steel surface of a vehicle door located at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.

Alley-Barnes has been invited to speak in the United States, Canada, and Europe where he engages in multidisciplinary, critical discourse around contemporary art & art history.  Alley-Barnes is a founding member of the multidisciplinary creative collective Black Constellation. He lives and works between Seattle, Washington and Los Angeles, California.