“With my portraits, I aim to highlight immigrants’ individuality, community connections, and presence in our society to help increase sensitivity to immigrants,” says Malayka Gormally. “As an immigrant’s daughter, I grew up on stories of suffering during the Nazi occupation of my father’s country, the Netherlands, and witnessed his difficulties navigating American culture. My mom spoke of her family coming through Ellis Island around 1900 to escape the pogroms and how they grew up in poverty in Brooklyn tenements and built lives and careers in the U.S. And yet, I never thought to focus my artwork on immigration until I participated in a march against the first travel ban in 2017. During the march, walking with groups of women immigrants from African countries, I understood that my family’s immigration story was central to my identity and that I had commonalities with the women around me.”
Website
https://www.malaykagormally.com/
