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Wikipedia

Christopher Myers

January 01, 1970

Christopher Myers (born 1974) is an American interdisciplinary artist, author and illustrator of children's books, and playwright.[1][2][3] His wide-ranging practice—including tapestries, sculpture, stained glass lightboxes, theater and writing—is rooted in storytelling and artmaking as modes of transformation and cultural exchange.[4][5] He explores contemporary hybrid cultures and identities resulting from histories of migration (chosen and forced), globalization and colonization.[1][6][7] Critics have noted his work's fluid movement between disciplines, image and language, sociopolitical research and mythology, and diverse materials.[8][9] Shana Nys Dambrot of LA Weekly wrote, "Ideas about authorship, collaboration, cross-cultural pollination, intergenerational storytelling, mythology, literature and the oral histories of displaced communities all converge in his literal and metaphorical patchwork tableaux … [his] sharp, emotional and sometimes dark parables express it all in bright, jubilant patterns and saturated colors."[10]

Christopher Myers
Born1974 (age 49–50)
Queens, NY, US
EducationBrown University
Known forTapestries, sculpture, stained-glass works, illustration, theater
AwardsBRIC Arts Media, ALA Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award
Websitewww.kalyban.com
Christopher Myers, Nat Turner, stained glass, 90.125" x 45.125", 2022.

Myers's artwork belongs to the public collections of the National Gallery of Art,[11] Brooklyn Museum,[12] National Museum of African American History and Culture,[13] and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago,[14] among others. His work has been presented at venues including MoMA PS1, Kennedy Center, the Art Institute of Chicago and Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia.[15][16][17] He has received a BRIC Arts Media prize[18] and the American Library Association's Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award for his book illustration.[19][20] Myers is based in Brooklyn, New York.[2][11]

Life and career edit

Christopher Dean Myers was born in 1974 in Queens, New York.[21] He attended Brown University, earning a BA in Art-Semiotics and American Civilization in 1995, and participated in the Whitney Museum of Art Independent Studio Program in 1996.[20]

Myers is the son of well-known children's book author Walter Dean Myers (1937–2014).[22][23] They began collaborating in the mid-1990s, with Myers illustrating his father's books, and later, co-writing several with him.[22][24] He began to publish his own self-illustrated books with Black Cat in 1999, continuing through My Pen (2015).[25][26][3] In 2000, he began to exhibit his art. He has appeared in surveys including "Greater New York" (MoMA PS1, 2005), the Prospect New Orleans Biennial (2014), Biennial of Graphic Arts (Ljubljana) (2017), and the 2021 Desert X Biennial.[7][27][28][29] He has had solo exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem,[30] the Akron Art Museum,[31] Fort Gansevoort,[4] James Cohan Gallery,[32] and the Blaffer Art Museum.[6] Since 2014, he has also collaborated on film, performance and theater works as a designer, writer and director, with artists such as Kaneza Schaal and Hank Willis Thomas.[33][2][34]

Work and reception edit

 
Christopher Myers, Sarah Forbes Bonetta as Omoba Aina as Persephone, appliqué textile, 108" x 408", 2021.

Myers's art centers on how different elements—visual symbols, fabric patterns and paper fragments, words, narratives—are put together, rather than on the particulars of materials, objects or mediums.[1][35][10] This approach creates a common thread across his work, from the visual patchworks of collaged illustrations and appliqué tapestries to the conceptual juxtapositions of cultures, myths, stories and experiences in his books, plays and artwork.[1][6] Collaboration with communities and artisans (e.g., textile, glasswork, shadow puppet or instrument makers) around the world also plays a key role, enabling him to connect seemingly isolated geographies, histories, data points, generations and identities, while questioning the traditional narrative of the sole artist.[36][10][37][38]

Artwork edit

Tapestries edit

 
Christopher Myers, Earth, 2020

Tapestries have figured significantly in Myers's art. The brightly colored, intricately patterned work draws upon influences including the innovative Quilts of Gee's Bend and simple cutouts of Henri Matisse, the figurative work of Jacob Lawrence, and global regional forms.[39][8][36][40] His exhibitions at The Mistake Room (2017, Guadalajara) included collaborations with Vietnamese embroiderers on images inspired by Lil Wayne rap songs and the "Vxllrncgnt" project—mural-like flags for imaginary nations made from 70-year-old Egyptian sails that were influenced by the colonial history of flags created by the Ghanaian Fante people.[9][41] Myers's tapestries notably mix dissonant modes of tradition—an intimate, quotidian and "warm, folksy art form"[10]—and critique, chronicling difficult narratives, involving, for example, Confederate monuments, slavery, police violence or climate crisis.[40][8]

Myers's titled his 2019 exhibition at Fort Gansevoort, "Drapetomania", referencing a supposed and debunked 19th-century pseudoscientific theory that posited enslaved Africans' impulse to escape bondage as a mental illness.[4][8] Los Angeles Times critic Leah Ollman wrote that its monumental tapestries "conceive a kind of emblematic space, part proclamatory banner, part illusionistic window to the world. The most affecting works visualize some sort of existential reckoning, a claiming of place, voice, liberty."[8] What Does It Mean To Matter (Community Autopsy) (2019) was a 14-foot wide group portrait of nine recent victims of police violence, each a silhouette in umber, crimson or ochre cloth modeled after coroners' autopsy sheets and embellished only with yellow and red shapes marking the bullet wounds that killed them.[10][4][11] In his 34-foot textile mural, Sarah Forbes Bonetta as Omoba Aina as Persephone (2021), Myers depicted the diasporic dislocations of a 19th-century Yoruba princess (Bonetta) who was orphaned and enslaved in a regional war, given to the British as a diplomatic gift, raised as Queen Victoria's ward, and finally married to a wealthy industrialist. The tapestry's layered analogies connect her hybrid identity to colonial history and the Greek goddess Persephone, who was given away to Hades, god of the underworld.[35][32]

Sculpture edit

Myers's sculpture similarly explores cross-cultural and trans-historical narratives and links.[42][43] The mixed-media collaboration Echo in the Bones (2014, Prospect.3) examined grief rituals in Vietnam and New Orleans connected through the global tradition of jazz. It combined photographs, a Saigon–New Orleans jazz funeral march and re-imagined, fantastical brass instruments and costumes created by Myers that were used in a film by the Vietnamese collective The Propeller Group.[27][44][42] In his Desert X installation, The Art of Taming Horses (2021), Myers collapsed the forgotten histories of Mexican and African-American cowboys in a fictional story of two ranchers told through vibrant, mythic tapestries and large-scale steel horse sculptures.[29][43][45] Both projects featured elements fabricated by artists and craftspeople from around the world, complicating the work with considerations of cultural exchange, authorship and identity.[43][45]

In other sculptures, Myers has combined resonant objects and materials (e.g., figurines, ink, a face cage, microscopes) to evoke and transform trauma.[4][6][10] Shackle and Light (2019) consisted of a thick metal collar encircling the neck of a featureless, carved wooden head with extending rods that housed dozens of periodically lit candles, transforming a symbol of oppression into a flickering chandelier signifying resistance.[8][10]

Stained glass edit

Myers's shows "The Hands of Strange Children" (2022, James Cohan) and "of all creatures that can feel and think" (Blaffer Art Museum, 2023) featured stained glass lightboxes alongside tapestries and sculpture. The stained glass works melded religious iconography (and a medium associated with sacred Christian spaces) with reconceived mythology to exalt historical anti-colonialist figures that Myers has called "failed prophets."[35][6][1] Nat Turner (2022) depicted the African-American insurgent in a moment of divine revelation inspired by the pose from Caravaggio's Conversion on the Way to Damascus (1600); in Nongqawuse (2022), the Xhosa prophet sits upon a horned bull in a restaging of the Greek myth of Zeus and Europa.[32][35][6] In 2022, Myers created the stained-glass work Be Lost Well (Stay in the House All Day) for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which paid tribute to interdisciplinary artist Ralph Lemon.[46]

Theatrical collaborations edit

 
Christopher Myers, shadow puppet from theatre and dance production Fire in the Head, 2022.

Myers has collaborated on works in theater, dance, opera and film. His work with Kaneza Schaal includes Go/Forth (2016, Performance Space New York), a work on mourning written by Schaal and designed by Myers;[33] Jack & (2018, Brooklyn Academy of Music) and Cartography (2019, Kennedy Center), written and designed by Myers and directed by Schaal;[47][2] and Schaal's KLII (2022, Walker Art Center), which Myers designed and co-directed.[48] Jack & examined incarceration and re-entry into society through a single character and was presented with Myers's accompanying video installation, The Cotillion.[47] Cartography emerged from their work with migrant children around the world and took a nonlinear look at the widespread, shared experience of migration.[2][49][50]

For his theater and dance performance Fire in the Head (2022, Crossing the Line), Myers worked with Indonesian master craftspeople to create shadow puppets that depicted inner conflicts revealed in the diaries of renowned dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky.[51] He worked with artist Hank Willis Thomas on Am I Going Too Fast? (2014, Sundance), an experimental short film about poverty, the global aid industry and the rapid rise of technology in Kenya.[34][7] Myers was also the production designer for the opera Omar (2022, Spoleto Festival, LA Opera) by composers Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, about 19th-century Muslim scholar Omar ibn Said.[52][53]

Illustration and writing edit

Myer's work as an illustrator and author have been recognized by the American Library Association (ALA) and Cooperative Children’s Book Center.[54][55] He received a Caldecott Honor for illustration for Harlem (1998) and a Coretta Scott King Honor for Jazz (2007), both written by his father, Walter Dean Myers.[19][54][56] He also received Coretta Scott King Honors for illustration for two of his own books, Black Cat (2000) and H.O.R.S.E. (2013).[57][26][54] In 2014, his illustration for Firebird by Misty Copeland won a Coretta Scott King Award.[20][58]

Myers's illustration has combined painting, photography and collage.[16] In a 2000 New York Times review of Myers's book, Wings, Michael Emberley wrote that over the course of several books, his work evolved from dense oil on cut-paper images to heavily worked photos to seemingly hasty cut-paper pieces with "a fresh, urban look, bringing to mind the great collage artist Romare Bearden" or the "confidence and brashness of a hip young Matisse."[25] Patricia J. Williams wrote of the collection, Lies and Other Tall Tales (2005): Myers's "collages of paper and fabric, are visual plays and puns in their own right. If the tales Hurston collected are wry and absurd, Myers's depictions give that absurdity a gorgeously kinetic vivacity beyond words."[59]

Myers has also contributed essays about uneven racial representation in children's book publishing and the public violence experienced by youth of color to The New York Times[60] and The Horn Book Magazine.[61][62] In 2016, he founded an imprint, Make Me a World, with Random House Children’s Books, in part to address the lack of racial and cultural diversity in children’s publishing.[63][64]

Myers's published work as an illustrator includes:

  • The Shadow of the Red Moon (by Walter Dean Myers), New York: Scholastic Press, 1995
  • Harlem: A Poem (by Walter Dean Myers), New York: Scholastic Press, 1997
  • Monster (by Walter Dean Myers), New York: HarperCollins, 1999
  • Blues Journey (by Walter Dean Myers), New York: Holiday House, 2001
  • A Time to Love: Stories from the Old Testament, (by Walter Dean Myers), New York: Scholastic Press, 2003
  • Autobiography of My Dead Brother (by Walter Dean Myers), New York: HarperCollins, 2005
  • Love: Selected Poems (by E. E. Cummings), New York: Hyperion Books, 2005
  • Jazz (by Walter Dean Myers), New York: Holiday House, 2006
  • Looking Like Me (written by Walter Dean Myers), New York: Egmont USA, 2009
  • Firebird (by Misty Copeland), New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2014
  • Jake Makes a World: Jacob Lawrence, A Young Artist in Harlem (by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts), New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2015
  • Into the Uncut Grass (by Trevor Noah), New York: Penguin Random House, 2023[65]

Myers's published work as an author and illustrator include:

  • Black Cat, New York: Scholastic Press, 1999
  • Wings, New York: Scholastic Press, 2000
  • Fly!, New York: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books, 2001
  • Lies and Other Tall Tales (stories collected by Zora Neale Hurston, adapted by Myers), New York: HarperCollins, 2005
  • Jabberwocky (poem by Lewis Carroll, reinterpreted by Myers), New York: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books, 2007
  • We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart (co-written with Walter Dean Myers), New York: HarperCollins, 2011
  • H.O.R.S.E.: A Game of Basketball and Imagination, New York: Egmont USA, 2012
  • My Pen, New York: Disney Hyperion Books, 2015

Recognition for art edit

Myers's art belongs to the public collections of the Ackland Art Museum,[66] Brooklyn Museum,[12] Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mead Art Museum,[67] Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago,[14] Nasher Museum of Art,[21] National Gallery of Art,[36] National Museum of African American History and Culture,[13] Pérez Art Museum Miami,[68] Rubell Museum,[69] The Studio Museum in Harlem,[70] and US Department of State,[71] among others.

He has received a BRIC Arts Media prize (2019),[18] an Art for Justice Fund grant (2018),[72] and an artist residency at San Art Laboratory (2013, Vietnam).[73] In 2018, he created the commissioned billboard Mayflowers (2018, Maine) as part of the For Freedoms "50 State Initiative" promoting political participation,[74] and in 2020 created My Body is a Burning House, a billboard for Walls for a Cause NYC.[75][76]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e Rhodes-Pitts, Sharifa. "Christopher Myers," BOMB, March 15, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e Collins-Hughes, Laura. "A Show Reminds Young Audiences: We All Got Here From Somewhere," The New York Times, January 9, 2020. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Colón, Raúl. "'Ben Draws Trouble,' 'How to Draw a Dragon' and 'My Pen,'" The New York Times, May 8, 2015. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e Hirsch, Liz, "Christopher Myers," Artforum, January 10, 2020. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  5. ^ Bowie, Summer. "Hybrid Forms: An Interview Of Artist & Storyteller Christopher Myers," Autre, January 19, 2020. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Calero. Fernanda. "Christopher Myers' 'of all creatures that can feel and think' is a Picturesque Cartography of History," Glasstire, Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  7. ^ a b c Art 21. Christopher Myers, Artists. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Ollman, Leah. "How artist Christopher Myers stitched messages of freedom from everyday fabrics," Los Angeles Times, January 29, 2020. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  9. ^ a b Martin, Hannah. "Textile Artist Christopher Myers Debuts New Set of Figurative Quilts at Fort Gansevoort," Architectural Digest, November 14, 2019.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Dambrot, Shana Nys. "The World in Pieces: Christopher Myers at Fort Gansevoort," LA Weekly, January 16, 2020. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  11. ^ a b c Valentine, Victoria L. "National Gallery of Art Acquires Textile Work By Christopher Myers Memorializing Victims of Police Murder," Culture Type, April 27, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  12. ^ a b Brooklyn Museum Prospero, Christopher Myers, Collection. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  13. ^ a b National Museum of African American History and Culture. The Grim Work of Death, Christopher Myers, Objects. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  14. ^ a b Valentine, Victoria L. "Latest News in Black Art," Culture Type, May 2, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  15. ^ MoMA PS1. Christopher Myers, Artists. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  16. ^ a b The Kennedy Center. "Q&A with Cartography playwright Christopher Myers," Medium, January 4, 2019. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  17. ^ Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. "Fables," Exhibitions. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  18. ^ a b Artforum. "Inaugural Recipients of BRIC’s $100,000 Colene Brown Art Prize Announced," News, October 2, 2019. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  19. ^ a b Lipson, Eden Ross. "Girls' Stressful Tales Draw Newbery and Caldecott Awards," The New York Times, January 13, 1998. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  20. ^ a b c American Library Association. Firebird, Awards. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  21. ^ a b Nasher Museum of Art. Hecate, Christopher Myers, Objects. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  22. ^ a b Bray, Rosemary L. "Children's Books," The New York Times, January 8, 2016. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  23. ^ LA Opera. Christopher Myers, Artists. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  24. ^ Kellogg, Carolyn. "2015 Newbery, Caldecott and Printz awards announced," Los Angeles Times, February 2, 2015. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  25. ^ a b Emberley, Michael. "Children's Books; Not Like Other Boys," The New York Times, November 19, 2000. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  26. ^ a b Kellogg, Carolyn. "Caldecott, Newbery Medals awarded by American Library Assn.," Los Angeles Times, January 28, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  27. ^ a b Morris, Benjamin. "Let There Be Light: The Propeller Group with Christopher Myers," Pelican Bomb, December 10, 2014.
  28. ^ Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts. The 32nd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion, 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  29. ^ a b Vankin, Deborah. "Desert X art biennial sets a March opening, minus Palm Springs’ support," Los Angeles Times, February 9, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  30. ^ Studio Museum of Harlem. Christopher Myers, Artists. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  31. ^ Burkey, Chris. "Museums, Akron Art Museum" Record-Courier, February 12, 2003.
  32. ^ a b c Angeleti, Gabriella and Benjamin Sutton. "Three exhibitions to see in New York this weekend: Christopher Myers," The Art Newspaper, March 11, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  33. ^ a b Brantley, Ben. "Review: 'Go Forth' Finds the Living and the Dead Bound Together," The New York Times, January 9, 2016. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  34. ^ a b Jones, Sam. "Sundance short film competition invites innovative development stories," The Guardian, April 25, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  35. ^ a b c d Zhang, Lisa Yin. "Christopher Myers: The Hands of Strange Children," TheGuide.Art, March 30, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  36. ^ a b c National Gallery of Art. "Artist Christopher Myers Considers What It Means to 'Matter,'" Stories, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  37. ^ Miranda, Carolina. "Christopher Myers meditates on escape in textile works at Fort Gansevoort," Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2019. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  38. ^ Blaffer Art Museum. "Christopher Myers: of all creatures that can feel and think," 2023. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  39. ^ Tancons, Claire. "Ten Best of 2018," Artforum, December 5, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  40. ^ a b Cascone, Sarah and Goldstein, Caroline. “Editors' Picks: 17 Things Not to Miss in New York’s Art World This Week," Artnet, September 10, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  41. ^ The Mistake Room. "Christopher Myers: Flags of No Nation," 2017. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  42. ^ a b Yablonsky, Linda, "Bright Prospects," Artforum, October 31, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  43. ^ a b c Stromberg, Matt. "Palm Springs Takes a Stance Against Desert X Biennial’s Partnership With Saudi Arabia," Hyperallergic, February 24, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  44. ^ Steinhauer, Jillian. "Best of 2014: Our Top 10 Exhibitions Across the United States," Hyperallergic, December 26, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  45. ^ a b Walker, Ronnie. "Six Sculptures Pay Homage to Forgotten Cowboys of Color," KCET, May 4, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  46. ^ Brooklyn Academy of Music. Be Lost Well (Stay in the House All Day), 2022. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  47. ^ a b Vincentelli, Elisabeth. "Review: An Actor’s Life Story Grounds 'Jack &' With 'The Cotillion,'" The New York Times, April 18, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  48. ^ Walker Art Center. Kaneza Schaal, KLII. Program Notes. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  49. ^ Gronlund, Melissa. "NYUAD's 'Cartography' seeks for a greater understanding of the plight of refugees," The National, Jun 24, 2018. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  50. ^ Siegel, David. "Review: 'Cartography' at The Kennedy Center," DC Theater Arts, January 12, 2019. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  51. ^ Chowdhury, Radiyah. "Is Shadow Puppetry a Dying Art Form," Hyperallergic, October 25, 2022. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  52. ^ Barone, Joshua. "At the Spoleto Festival, Opera Is an Act of Liberation," The New York Times, May 30, 2022. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  53. ^ Miranda, Carolina. "An installation by artist Richard Turner imagines the night sky, 18th century style," Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2022. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  54. ^ a b c Coretta Scott King Book Awards Round Table. Coretta Scott King Book Awards – All Recipients, 1970–Present, American Library Association. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  55. ^ Cooperative Children’s Book Center. Wings, Booklists. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  56. ^ Lewis, J. Patrick. "O Frabjous Day!" The New York Times, November 11, 2007. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  57. ^ Lipson, Eden Ross. "2 Children's Prizes Go to African-American's Book," The New York Times, January 18, 2000. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  58. ^ Phillips, Jevon. "Misty Copeland: A trailblazing ballerina makes the judge’s table," Los Angeles Times, June 11, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  59. ^ Williams, Patricia J. "'Lies and Other Tall Tales': Outrageously Speaking," The New York Times, November 13, 2005. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  60. ^ Myers, Christopher. "The Apartheid of Children’s Literature," The New York Times, March 15, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  61. ^ Myers, Christopher. "Young Dreamers," The Horn Book, August 6, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  62. ^ Myers, Christopher. "Orlando," The Horn Book, June 24, 2016. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  63. ^ Alter, Alexandra. "Kwame Alexander Will Start His Own Imprint. The Name? Versify. Get It?" The New York Times, January 30, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  64. ^ Penguin Random House. "Christopher Myers to Launch Make Me a World Imprint with Random House Children’s Books," News. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  65. ^ Schaub, Michael. "New Book by Trevor Noah Coming This Fall," Kirkus, July 25, 2023. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
  66. ^ Ackland Art Museum. "Close Looks: "Fish Pieta" by Christopher Myers." Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  67. ^ Mead Art Museum. Christopher Myers, Collections. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  68. ^ Solomon, Michelle F. "Collector Jorge M. Pérez on his most recent art obsession and the exhibit at El Espacio 23," Artburst, December 10, 2020. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  69. ^ Allen, Brian T. "The New Rubell Museum in D.C. Is a Work in Progress, National Review, April 2023. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  70. ^ Studio Museum of Harlem. Our Artists, Collection. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  71. ^ Art in Embassies, US Department of State. Christopher Myers, Artists. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  72. ^ Art for Justice Fund. Kaneza Schaal and Chris Myers, Grantees. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  73. ^ San Art. Christopher Myers, Producer. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  74. ^ Neuendorf, Henri. "Here Are the 150 Artists Making Billboards for Every US State as Part of Hank Willis Thomas’s Midterm Election Project," Artnet, October 9, 2018.
  75. ^ Machado, Danilo. "Bold Colors and Surreal Compositions Upend the Monotony of Commercial Billboards," Hyperallergic, February 18, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  76. ^ Smith, Melissa. "5 Things to Do This Weekend: Impact on the West Side," The New York Times, February 4, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2023.

External links edit

  • Christopher Myers
  • Christopher Myers, Art 21
  • Christopher Myers, James Cohan Gallery
  • Christopher Myers at Library of Congress Authorities, with 21 catalog records

January 01, 1970
christopher, myers, born, 1974, american, interdisciplinary, artist, author, illustrator, children, books, playwright, wide, ranging, practice, including, tapestries, sculpture, stained, glass, lightboxes, theater, writing, rooted, storytelling, artmaking, mod. Christopher Myers born 1974 is an American interdisciplinary artist author and illustrator of children s books and playwright 1 2 3 His wide ranging practice including tapestries sculpture stained glass lightboxes theater and writing is rooted in storytelling and artmaking as modes of transformation and cultural exchange 4 5 He explores contemporary hybrid cultures and identities resulting from histories of migration chosen and forced globalization and colonization 1 6 7 Critics have noted his work s fluid movement between disciplines image and language sociopolitical research and mythology and diverse materials 8 9 Shana Nys Dambrot of LA Weekly wrote Ideas about authorship collaboration cross cultural pollination intergenerational storytelling mythology literature and the oral histories of displaced communities all converge in his literal and metaphorical patchwork tableaux his sharp emotional and sometimes dark parables express it all in bright jubilant patterns and saturated colors 10 Christopher MyersBorn1974 age 49 50 Queens NY USEducationBrown UniversityKnown forTapestries sculpture stained glass works illustration theaterAwardsBRIC Arts Media ALA Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King AwardWebsitewww wbr kalyban wbr com Christopher Myers Nat Turner stained glass 90 125 x 45 125 2022 Myers s artwork belongs to the public collections of the National Gallery of Art 11 Brooklyn Museum 12 National Museum of African American History and Culture 13 and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago 14 among others His work has been presented at venues including MoMA PS1 Kennedy Center the Art Institute of Chicago and Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia 15 16 17 He has received a BRIC Arts Media prize 18 and the American Library Association s Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award for his book illustration 19 20 Myers is based in Brooklyn New York 2 11 Contents 1 Life and career 2 Work and reception 3 Artwork 3 1 Tapestries 3 2 Sculpture 3 3 Stained glass 4 Theatrical collaborations 5 Illustration and writing 6 Recognition for art 7 References 8 External linksLife and career editChristopher Dean Myers was born in 1974 in Queens New York 21 He attended Brown University earning a BA in Art Semiotics and American Civilization in 1995 and participated in the Whitney Museum of Art Independent Studio Program in 1996 20 Myers is the son of well known children s book author Walter Dean Myers 1937 2014 22 23 They began collaborating in the mid 1990s with Myers illustrating his father s books and later co writing several with him 22 24 He began to publish his own self illustrated books with Black Cat in 1999 continuing through My Pen 2015 25 26 3 In 2000 he began to exhibit his art He has appeared in surveys including Greater New York MoMA PS1 2005 the Prospect New Orleans Biennial 2014 Biennial of Graphic Arts Ljubljana 2017 and the 2021 Desert X Biennial 7 27 28 29 He has had solo exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem 30 the Akron Art Museum 31 Fort Gansevoort 4 James Cohan Gallery 32 and the Blaffer Art Museum 6 Since 2014 he has also collaborated on film performance and theater works as a designer writer and director with artists such as Kaneza Schaal and Hank Willis Thomas 33 2 34 Work and reception edit nbsp Christopher Myers Sarah Forbes Bonetta as Omoba Aina as Persephone applique textile 108 x 408 2021 Myers s art centers on how different elements visual symbols fabric patterns and paper fragments words narratives are put together rather than on the particulars of materials objects or mediums 1 35 10 This approach creates a common thread across his work from the visual patchworks of collaged illustrations and applique tapestries to the conceptual juxtapositions of cultures myths stories and experiences in his books plays and artwork 1 6 Collaboration with communities and artisans e g textile glasswork shadow puppet or instrument makers around the world also plays a key role enabling him to connect seemingly isolated geographies histories data points generations and identities while questioning the traditional narrative of the sole artist 36 10 37 38 Artwork editTapestries edit nbsp Christopher Myers Earth 2020 Tapestries have figured significantly in Myers s art The brightly colored intricately patterned work draws upon influences including the innovative Quilts of Gee s Bend and simple cutouts of Henri Matisse the figurative work of Jacob Lawrence and global regional forms 39 8 36 40 His exhibitions at The Mistake Room 2017 Guadalajara included collaborations with Vietnamese embroiderers on images inspired by Lil Wayne rap songs and the Vxllrncgnt project mural like flags for imaginary nations made from 70 year old Egyptian sails that were influenced by the colonial history of flags created by the Ghanaian Fante people 9 41 Myers s tapestries notably mix dissonant modes of tradition an intimate quotidian and warm folksy art form 10 and critique chronicling difficult narratives involving for example Confederate monuments slavery police violence or climate crisis 40 8 Myers s titled his 2019 exhibition at Fort Gansevoort Drapetomania referencing a supposed and debunked 19th century pseudoscientific theory that posited enslaved Africans impulse to escape bondage as a mental illness 4 8 Los Angeles Times critic Leah Ollman wrote that its monumental tapestries conceive a kind of emblematic space part proclamatory banner part illusionistic window to the world The most affecting works visualize some sort of existential reckoning a claiming of place voice liberty 8 What Does It Mean To Matter Community Autopsy 2019 was a 14 foot wide group portrait of nine recent victims of police violence each a silhouette in umber crimson or ochre cloth modeled after coroners autopsy sheets and embellished only with yellow and red shapes marking the bullet wounds that killed them 10 4 11 In his 34 foot textile mural Sarah Forbes Bonetta as Omoba Aina as Persephone 2021 Myers depicted the diasporic dislocations of a 19th century Yoruba princess Bonetta who was orphaned and enslaved in a regional war given to the British as a diplomatic gift raised as Queen Victoria s ward and finally married to a wealthy industrialist The tapestry s layered analogies connect her hybrid identity to colonial history and the Greek goddess Persephone who was given away to Hades god of the underworld 35 32 Sculpture edit Myers s sculpture similarly explores cross cultural and trans historical narratives and links 42 43 The mixed media collaboration Echo in the Bones 2014 Prospect 3 examined grief rituals in Vietnam and New Orleans connected through the global tradition of jazz It combined photographs a Saigon New Orleans jazz funeral march and re imagined fantastical brass instruments and costumes created by Myers that were used in a film by the Vietnamese collective The Propeller Group 27 44 42 In his Desert X installation The Art of Taming Horses 2021 Myers collapsed the forgotten histories of Mexican and African American cowboys in a fictional story of two ranchers told through vibrant mythic tapestries and large scale steel horse sculptures 29 43 45 Both projects featured elements fabricated by artists and craftspeople from around the world complicating the work with considerations of cultural exchange authorship and identity 43 45 In other sculptures Myers has combined resonant objects and materials e g figurines ink a face cage microscopes to evoke and transform trauma 4 6 10 Shackle and Light 2019 consisted of a thick metal collar encircling the neck of a featureless carved wooden head with extending rods that housed dozens of periodically lit candles transforming a symbol of oppression into a flickering chandelier signifying resistance 8 10 Stained glass edit Myers s shows The Hands of Strange Children 2022 James Cohan and of all creatures that can feel and think Blaffer Art Museum 2023 featured stained glass lightboxes alongside tapestries and sculpture The stained glass works melded religious iconography and a medium associated with sacred Christian spaces with reconceived mythology to exalt historical anti colonialist figures that Myers has called failed prophets 35 6 1 Nat Turner 2022 depicted the African American insurgent in a moment of divine revelation inspired by the pose from Caravaggio s Conversion on the Way to Damascus 1600 in Nongqawuse 2022 the Xhosa prophet sits upon a horned bull in a restaging of the Greek myth of Zeus and Europa 32 35 6 In 2022 Myers created the stained glass work Be Lost Well Stay in the House All Day for the Brooklyn Academy of Music which paid tribute to interdisciplinary artist Ralph Lemon 46 Theatrical collaborations edit nbsp Christopher Myers shadow puppet from theatre and dance production Fire in the Head 2022 Myers has collaborated on works in theater dance opera and film His work with Kaneza Schaal includes Go Forth 2016 Performance Space New York a work on mourning written by Schaal and designed by Myers 33 Jack amp 2018 Brooklyn Academy of Music and Cartography 2019 Kennedy Center written and designed by Myers and directed by Schaal 47 2 and Schaal s KLII 2022 Walker Art Center which Myers designed and co directed 48 Jack amp examined incarceration and re entry into society through a single character and was presented with Myers s accompanying video installation The Cotillion 47 Cartography emerged from their work with migrant children around the world and took a nonlinear look at the widespread shared experience of migration 2 49 50 For his theater and dance performance Fire in the Head 2022 Crossing the Line Myers worked with Indonesian master craftspeople to create shadow puppets that depicted inner conflicts revealed in the diaries of renowned dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky 51 He worked with artist Hank Willis Thomas on Am I Going Too Fast 2014 Sundance an experimental short film about poverty the global aid industry and the rapid rise of technology in Kenya 34 7 Myers was also the production designer for the opera Omar 2022 Spoleto Festival LA Opera by composers Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels about 19th century Muslim scholar Omar ibn Said 52 53 Illustration and writing editMyer s work as an illustrator and author have been recognized by the American Library Association ALA and Cooperative Children s Book Center 54 55 He received a Caldecott Honor for illustration for Harlem 1998 and a Coretta Scott King Honor for Jazz 2007 both written by his father Walter Dean Myers 19 54 56 He also received Coretta Scott King Honors for illustration for two of his own books Black Cat 2000 and H O R S E 2013 57 26 54 In 2014 his illustration for Firebird by Misty Copeland won a Coretta Scott King Award 20 58 Myers s illustration has combined painting photography and collage 16 In a 2000 New York Times review of Myers s book Wings Michael Emberley wrote that over the course of several books his work evolved from dense oil on cut paper images to heavily worked photos to seemingly hasty cut paper pieces with a fresh urban look bringing to mind the great collage artist Romare Bearden or the confidence and brashness of a hip young Matisse 25 Patricia J Williams wrote of the collection Lies and Other Tall Tales 2005 Myers s collages of paper and fabric are visual plays and puns in their own right If the tales Hurston collected are wry and absurd Myers s depictions give that absurdity a gorgeously kinetic vivacity beyond words 59 Myers has also contributed essays about uneven racial representation in children s book publishing and the public violence experienced by youth of color to The New York Times 60 and The Horn Book Magazine 61 62 In 2016 he founded an imprint Make Me a World with Random House Children s Books in part to address the lack of racial and cultural diversity in children s publishing 63 64 Myers s published work as an illustrator includes The Shadow of the Red Moon by Walter Dean Myers New York Scholastic Press 1995 Harlem A Poem by Walter Dean Myers New York Scholastic Press 1997 Monster by Walter Dean Myers New York HarperCollins 1999 Blues Journey by Walter Dean Myers New York Holiday House 2001 A Time to Love Stories from the Old Testament by Walter Dean Myers New York Scholastic Press 2003 Autobiography of My Dead Brother by Walter Dean Myers New York HarperCollins 2005 Love Selected Poems by E E Cummings New York Hyperion Books 2005 Jazz by Walter Dean Myers New York Holiday House 2006 Looking Like Me written by Walter Dean Myers New York Egmont USA 2009 Firebird by Misty Copeland New York G P Putnam s Sons 2014 Jake Makes a World Jacob Lawrence A Young Artist in Harlem by Sharifa Rhodes Pitts New York Museum of Modern Art 2015 Into the Uncut Grass by Trevor Noah New York Penguin Random House 2023 65 Myers s published work as an author and illustrator include Black Cat New York Scholastic Press 1999 Wings New York Scholastic Press 2000 Fly New York Jump at the Sun Hyperion Books 2001 Lies and Other Tall Tales stories collected by Zora Neale Hurston adapted by Myers New York HarperCollins 2005 Jabberwocky poem by Lewis Carroll reinterpreted by Myers New York Jump at the Sun Hyperion Books 2007 We Are America A Tribute from the Heart co written with Walter Dean Myers New York HarperCollins 2011 H O R S E A Game of Basketball and Imagination New York Egmont USA 2012 My Pen New York Disney Hyperion Books 2015Recognition for art editMyers s art belongs to the public collections of the Ackland Art Museum 66 Brooklyn Museum 12 Los Angeles County Museum of Art Mead Art Museum 67 Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago 14 Nasher Museum of Art 21 National Gallery of Art 36 National Museum of African American History and Culture 13 Perez Art Museum Miami 68 Rubell Museum 69 The Studio Museum in Harlem 70 and US Department of State 71 among others He has received a BRIC Arts Media prize 2019 18 an Art for Justice Fund grant 2018 72 and an artist residency at San Art Laboratory 2013 Vietnam 73 In 2018 he created the commissioned billboard Mayflowers 2018 Maine as part of the For Freedoms 50 State Initiative promoting political participation 74 and in 2020 created My Body is a Burning House a billboard for Walls for a Cause NYC 75 76 References edit a b c d e Rhodes Pitts Sharifa Christopher Myers BOMB March 15 2022 Retrieved July 3 2023 a b c d e Collins Hughes Laura A Show Reminds Young Audiences We All Got Here From Somewhere The New York Times January 9 2020 Retrieved July 3 2023 a b Colon Raul Ben Draws Trouble How to Draw a Dragon and My Pen The New York Times May 8 2015 Retrieved July 3 2023 a b c d e Hirsch Liz Christopher Myers Artforum January 10 2020 Retrieved July 3 2023 Bowie Summer Hybrid Forms An Interview Of Artist amp Storyteller Christopher Myers Autre January 19 2020 Retrieved July 5 2023 a b c d e f Calero Fernanda Christopher Myers of all creatures that can feel and think is a Picturesque Cartography of History Glasstire Retrieved July 3 2023 a b c Art 21 Christopher Myers Artists Retrieved July 3 2023 a b c d e f Ollman Leah How artist Christopher Myers stitched messages of freedom from everyday fabrics Los Angeles Times January 29 2020 Retrieved July 3 2023 a b Martin Hannah Textile Artist Christopher Myers Debuts New Set of Figurative Quilts at Fort Gansevoort Architectural Digest November 14 2019 a b c d e f g Dambrot Shana Nys The World in Pieces Christopher Myers at Fort Gansevoort LA Weekly January 16 2020 Retrieved July 3 2023 a b c Valentine Victoria L National Gallery of Art Acquires Textile Work By Christopher Myers Memorializing Victims of Police Murder Culture Type April 27 2021 Retrieved July 5 2023 a b Brooklyn Museum Prospero Christopher Myers Collection Retrieved July 5 2023 a b National Museum of African American History and Culture The Grim Work of Death Christopher Myers Objects Retrieved July 5 2023 a b Valentine Victoria L Latest News in Black Art Culture Type May 2 2021 Retrieved July 5 2023 MoMA PS1 Christopher Myers Artists Retrieved July 3 2023 a b The Kennedy Center Q amp A with Cartography playwright Christopher Myers Medium January 4 2019 Retrieved July 5 2023 Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia Fables Exhibitions Retrieved July 5 2023 a b Artforum Inaugural Recipients of BRIC s 100 000 Colene Brown Art Prize Announced News October 2 2019 Retrieved July 3 2023 a b Lipson Eden Ross Girls Stressful Tales Draw Newbery and Caldecott Awards The New York Times January 13 1998 Retrieved July 3 2023 a b c American Library Association Firebird Awards Retrieved July 5 2023 a b Nasher Museum of Art Hecate Christopher Myers Objects Retrieved July 5 2023 a b Bray Rosemary L Children s Books The New York Times January 8 2016 Retrieved July 5 2023 LA Opera Christopher Myers Artists Retrieved July 3 2023 Kellogg Carolyn 2015 Newbery Caldecott and Printz awards announced Los Angeles Times February 2 2015 Retrieved July 5 2023 a b Emberley Michael Children s Books Not Like Other Boys The New York Times November 19 2000 Retrieved July 5 2023 a b Kellogg Carolyn Caldecott Newbery Medals awarded by American Library Assn Los Angeles Times January 28 2013 Retrieved July 5 2023 a b Morris Benjamin Let There Be Light The Propeller Group with Christopher Myers Pelican Bomb December 10 2014 Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts The 32nd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts Birth as Criterion 2017 Retrieved July 3 2023 a b Vankin Deborah Desert X art biennial sets a March opening minus Palm Springs support Los Angeles Times February 9 2021 Retrieved July 5 2023 Studio Museum of Harlem Christopher Myers Artists Retrieved July 5 2023 Burkey Chris Museums Akron Art Museum Record Courier February 12 2003 a b c Angeleti Gabriella and Benjamin Sutton Three exhibitions to see in New York this weekend Christopher Myers The Art Newspaper March 11 2022 Retrieved July 3 2023 a b Brantley Ben Review Go Forth Finds the Living and the Dead Bound Together The New York Times January 9 2016 Retrieved July 5 2023 a b Jones Sam Sundance short film competition invites innovative development stories The Guardian April 25 2014 Retrieved July 5 2023 a b c d Zhang Lisa Yin Christopher Myers The Hands of Strange Children TheGuide Art March 30 2022 Retrieved July 3 2023 a b c National Gallery of Art Artist Christopher Myers Considers What It Means to Matter Stories 2021 Retrieved July 3 2023 Miranda Carolina Christopher Myers meditates on escape in textile works at Fort Gansevoort Los Angeles Times December 12 2019 Retrieved July 3 2023 Blaffer Art Museum Christopher Myers of all creatures that can feel and think 2023 Retrieved July 5 2023 Tancons Claire Ten Best of 2018 Artforum December 5 2018 Retrieved July 5 2023 a b Cascone Sarah and Goldstein Caroline Editors Picks 17 Things Not to Miss in New York s Art World This Week Artnet September 10 2018 Retrieved July 5 2023 The Mistake Room Christopher Myers Flags of No Nation 2017 Retrieved July 5 2023 a b Yablonsky Linda Bright Prospects Artforum October 31 2014 Retrieved July 3 2023 a b c Stromberg Matt Palm Springs Takes a Stance Against Desert X Biennial s Partnership With Saudi Arabia Hyperallergic February 24 2021 Retrieved July 5 2023 Steinhauer Jillian Best of 2014 Our Top 10 Exhibitions Across the United States Hyperallergic December 26 2014 Retrieved July 5 2023 a b Walker Ronnie Six Sculptures Pay Homage to Forgotten Cowboys of Color KCET May 4 2021 Retrieved July 5 2023 Brooklyn Academy of Music Be Lost Well Stay in the House All Day 2022 Retrieved July 5 2023 a b Vincentelli Elisabeth Review An Actor s Life Story Grounds Jack amp With The Cotillion The New York Times April 18 2018 Retrieved July 5 2023 Walker Art Center Kaneza Schaal KLII Program Notes Retrieved July 5 2023 Gronlund Melissa NYUAD s Cartography seeks for a greater understanding of the plight of refugees The National Jun 24 2018 Retrieved July 3 2023 Siegel David Review Cartography at The Kennedy Center DC Theater Arts January 12 2019 Retrieved July 5 2023 Chowdhury Radiyah Is Shadow Puppetry a Dying Art Form Hyperallergic October 25 2022 Retrieved July 5 2023 Barone Joshua At the Spoleto Festival Opera Is an Act of Liberation The New York Times May 30 2022 Retrieved July 5 2023 Miranda Carolina An installation by artist Richard Turner imagines the night sky 18th century style Los Angeles Times October 29 2022 Retrieved July 5 2023 a b c Coretta Scott King Book Awards Round Table Coretta Scott King Book Awards All Recipients 1970 Present American Library Association Retrieved July 5 2023 Cooperative Children s Book Center Wings Booklists Retrieved July 5 2023 Lewis J Patrick O Frabjous Day The New York Times November 11 2007 Retrieved July 5 2023 Lipson Eden Ross 2 Children s Prizes Go to African American s Book The New York Times January 18 2000 Retrieved July 3 2023 Phillips Jevon Misty Copeland A trailblazing ballerina makes the judge s table Los Angeles Times June 11 2014 Retrieved July 5 2023 Williams Patricia J Lies and Other Tall Tales Outrageously Speaking The New York Times November 13 2005 Retrieved July 5 2023 Myers Christopher The Apartheid of Children s Literature The New York Times March 15 2014 Retrieved July 5 2023 Myers Christopher Young Dreamers The Horn Book August 6 2013 Retrieved July 5 2023 Myers Christopher Orlando The Horn Book June 24 2016 Retrieved July 5 2023 Alter Alexandra Kwame Alexander Will Start His Own Imprint The Name Versify Get It The New York Times January 30 2018 Retrieved July 5 2023 Penguin Random House Christopher Myers to Launch Make Me a World Imprint with Random House Children s Books News Retrieved July 5 2023 Schaub Michael New Book by Trevor Noah Coming This Fall Kirkus July 25 2023 Retrieved July 31 2023 Ackland Art Museum Close Looks Fish Pieta by Christopher Myers Retrieved July 5 2023 Mead Art Museum Christopher Myers Collections Retrieved July 5 2023 Solomon Michelle F Collector Jorge M Perez on his most recent art obsession and the exhibit at El Espacio 23 Artburst December 10 2020 Retrieved July 5 2023 Allen Brian T The New Rubell Museum in D C Is a Work in Progress National Review April 2023 Retrieved July 5 2023 Studio Museum of Harlem Our Artists Collection Retrieved July 5 2023 Art in Embassies US Department of State Christopher Myers Artists Retrieved July 3 2023 Art for Justice Fund Kaneza Schaal and Chris Myers Grantees Retrieved July 5 2023 San Art Christopher Myers Producer Retrieved July 5 2023 Neuendorf Henri Here Are the 150 Artists Making Billboards for Every US State as Part of Hank Willis Thomas s Midterm Election Project Artnet October 9 2018 Machado Danilo Bold Colors and Surreal Compositions Upend the Monotony of Commercial Billboards Hyperallergic February 18 2021 Retrieved July 5 2023 Smith Melissa 5 Things to Do This Weekend Impact on the West Side The New York Times February 4 2021 Retrieved July 5 2023 External links edit nbsp Children s literature portal Christopher Myers Christopher Myers Art 21 Christopher Myers James Cohan Gallery Christopher Myers at Library of Congress Authorities with 21 catalog records Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Christopher Myers amp oldid 1198340877, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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