Aliyah Salmon is a Brooklyn-based textile artist and designer whose practice engages with the intersections of beauty, visibility, and the lived experiences of Black women in contemporary America. Through the lens of craft and materiality, Salmon creates hand-tufted “yarn paintings” that bridge fine art and design, situating textile work within a lineage that has historically been undervalued yet deeply significant within the Black artistic canon.

Her process begins with the traditional Oxford punch needle and expands outward, incorporating collage, beadwork, and fabric. This slow craft methodology becomes an act of resistance, reclaiming time, labor, and care within a cultural landscape that often demands speed and erasure. The resulting works transform everyday materials into layered compositions that are at once tactile, symbolic, and narrative.

Salmon’s imagery draws on objects, symbols, and products rooted in Black and Afro-Caribbean culture—items tied to memory, identity, and community. Hair adornments, beauty products, and familiar domestic forms appear within her tufted surfaces as shorthand for broader conversations on Black femininity, hair politics, and diasporic belonging. These works not only honor cultural traditions but also reframe them as sites of power, play, and resilience.

In addition to her fine art practice, Salmon has collaborated with companies such as Disney, Target, Baggu, and Pandora, bringing her distinct visual language into design contexts. Her work has been exhibited across the United States and Canada, where it continues to invite dialogue around craft, identity, and the politics of representation.