JaLeel is driven by their third-person re-analysis of what movements and gestures are created when experiencing instinctual hypervigilance within the black experience, including but not limited to situations of uncertainty, and how performance can create spaces of renegotiation to these second-nature movements. They are interested in whether these movements can be redeployed for subversive and survivalist actions in everyday living or in moments of conflict, and how.  JaLeel develops work that allows a viewer to begin to unravel the levels at which pain exists not only in the body but also in the minds of black people. In their practice, they use performance as a time-based medium to create layered spaces for imaginative thinking and confrontation through various mediums.

     JaLeel has exhibited at Carriage Trade Gallery, Picture Theory Gallery, Skylab Gallery, and The Griffin Museum. They received their BFA in Photography & Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Visual Arts from Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of Art.