Janet Aly

Janet Aly was born in 1980 in Provo, Utah, spent some of her childhood in Utah and Colorado, before moving to her current home in Sacramento, CA, where she has lived the last 20 years.

Ms. Aly attended Sacramento City College and later California State University Sacramento, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Art in 2004. Her unique approach to fine art has made her a novelty to her peers. In 2004 she was interviewed for a local independent documentary titled “What it Takes: Sacramento Women in the Arts,” directed and produced by Lori Lockamy and Tatiana Renioza. In the film Ms. Aly was able to share her ideas of what it takes to be a female Muslim artist living and creating in post 9-11 America.

As an isolated Muslim artist living and working in Sacramento, CA, she is striving to grow the local Islamic art community, creating opportunities for non-Muslim viewers to gain new perspectives about Islam’s non-figural contributions to the arts. Ms. Aly is an active member of the International Muslimah Artist Network (IMAN), and belongs to numerous on-line art groups including the Islamic Artists Society.

Her work has been included in various national and international art exhibitions, publications and, private collections. She participates regularly in local solo and group exhibitions.

Ms. Aly received a New Orleans City Council Proclamation in recognition of her artistic contribution to the International Muslim Artist Exhibition, at the New Orleans African American Museum of Art, Culture, and History in New Orleans, LA. She also participated in the Liturgical Arts Festival: Come Creative Spirit, May-June, 2008, in Springfield, IL, a national exhibition of religious art in all its forms.

Janet Aly and her work were also featured in a recent article about Muslim women for Azizah Magazine.