New York’s Studio Museum in Harlem on October 14 revealed that it had chosen Jeffrey Meris. Devin N. Morris, and Charisse Pearlina Weston as its 2022–23 artists in residence. Each will receive a $25,000 stipend as well as studio space and access to mentors, and the three will present their work in a group exhibition at the institution as the residency nears its end.
Meris, born in Haiti and raised in Nassau, Bahamas, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic investigated the Black experience through a social lens. In recent months, he has paired mundane processes and objects using sculptural, metalwork, and casting methods in order to express his own healing and as a way of healing society’s broader historical wounds. Meris’s practice to date has additionally incorporated drawing, performance, and installation.
The Baltimore-born Morris addresses racial and sexual identity through a practice that encompasses painting, photography, writing, and video, frequently placed in the service of what the artist describes as environments of personal innocence. Morris is especially interested in how individuals are affected by their habitats, and in the webs formed by various kinds of relationships—romantic, platonic, and familial.
Weston, a Brooklyn-based conceptual artist, and writer, cites her childhood in the primarily Black, working-class neighborhood of Hiram Clark in southwest Houston, as a major influence. Her oeuvre—which embraces glass sculpture, sound, text, video, and photography—is concerned with Black interior life as a site of Black resistance, which she examines through folding, concealment, and repetition.
“We’re excited to welcome Jeffrey Meris, Devin N. Morris, and Charisse Pearlina Weston to the distinguished roster of our artist-in-residence program, which has defined the Studio Museum almost since our inception and redefined the culture through our alumni’s achievements,” said Thelma Golden, the Studio Museum’s director and chief curator.
The prestigious residency is known for elevating the careers of its participants, who have included Jordan Casteel, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Lauren Halsey, David Hammons, Maren Hassinger, Titus Kaphar, Simone Leigh, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, Mickalene Thomas, and Kehinde Wiley. The program this year received an endowment gift from the Potomac, Maryland–based Glenstone Foundation, which will provide it with a base of funding in perpetuity.