Event
Artist Talk: Merik Goma
Tuesday, May 17, 6:30 PM. Free admission, no RSVP required.
You’re invited to a conversation between artist Merik Goma and Moriah Peoples of The Amistad Center, hosted by Visual Arts Manager Cody Boyce. Goma will discuss his work and process behind Your Absence Is My Monument, a moving exhibition that speaks to the isolation and pain experienced during the pandemic. Goma is one of six recipients of the 2021 Real Art Awards, which supports emerging artists in New England, New York, and New Jersey.
“After the loss of a close friend and then my grandmother, I came face to face with a new understanding of absence in my life. Grappling over this concept and my internal dialogue, I wondered if there is ever room for absence to exist. And by invoking the presence of absence, does something else take its place? Looking at the climate of this moment, this idea resonates with how so many of us are without family, stability, and certainty on a massive scale. Reflecting on my narrative practice of set building and re-examining contemporary themes, it feels urgent to bring this work into a public space.”
Merik Goma is a New Haven-based photographer and recent graduate of the NXTHVN Studio Fellowship Program, an arts incubator founded by renowned artist Titus Kaphar. Goma builds intricate sets within his studio that he uses both as subjects of tableaux and as backdrops for narrative portrait photography. His technique is painterly in execution, with close attention paid to color and lighting. His work has been shown by Tilton Gallery, and is in the collection of Yale University. In 2021, Goma was selected as the Joyce C. Willis Artist in Residence by the Amistad Center for Arts & Culture at the Wadsworth Atheneum. As part of the residency, Goma will present a solo exhibition in 2023.
