Alice by Courtney Jolliff

This original mixed media painting, titled "Alice," is a contemporary work by Detroit artist Courtney Jolliff, featured in his debut exhibition, "Service." The piece is executed on a non-traditional substrate—a vertical sheet of newsprint—which provides a textured, ephemeral background of printed text and imagery. The composition features a central figurative subject rendered in a crude, expressive style. The figure is depicted wearing a vibrant purple dress and a large, broad-brimmed magenta or pink hat. They appear to be holding an object or another smaller figure against a blue-toned background. The painting utilizes heavy, impasto-like application of paint, predominantly in shades of white, grey, purple, and blue, which partially obscures the underlying newsprint. Notable details include a yellow three-pointed crown motif floating above the character and bold, black gestural markings that appear to be the artist's signature or tag running vertically on the upper left side. The condition is reflective of its low-brow or street-art aesthetic; the newsprint is visibly wrinkled, folded, and taped directly to a wall, showing raw, unfinished edges characteristic of the artist's recent conceptual focus on homelessness and survival following a 2022 house fire. This work represents a significant piece of Jolliff's narrative-driven Detroit period, emphasizing raw materiality and personal history.

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