CONRAD EGYIR | CRANBROOK ART MUSEUM

📽️ Join us throughout the "Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit" exhibit as we present the artists' voices in our latest video series, "Skilled Labor in 60 Seconds!"

🎨 Today, we spotlight Conrad Egyir!

🌍 Addressing contemporary American culture, biblical parables, and Ashanti iconography from his native Ghana, Conrad Egyir’s work explores questions of ethics, honesty, identity, and the social psychology of community. Monumental, uncanny, and often satirically grandiose, the paintings combine the graphic sensuality of Pop Art with the far-reaching narratives of history painting.

🖼️ His works are deeply art historical, often making explicit reference to specific works by Kerry James Marshall, Jacob Lawrence, Charles White, and Kara Walker. They are also in dialogue with diverse forms of popular culture, whether they are religious, musical, or animated.

🏛️ Egyir has an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. His work has been featured in solo shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Library Street Collective, Jessica Silverman Gallery, as well as in group shows at Cranbrook Art Museum and Grand Rapids Art Museum.

🏙️ You can see Egyir's work alongside the work of 19 other artists with ties to Detroit as a part of "Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit," on view now at Cranbrook Art Museum through March 3, 2024.