Originally from New York, Shyann Maragh is a Caribbean-American artist who recently graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and is now exhibiting her work throughout the city.
I make work that humorously critiques popular culture by using interventions like mixed-media collage, texture, and unconventional perspectives.
I believe that representation is important, and my paintings serve as a way to represent parts of the Black experience.
Through surrealist elements, collaging, and an intense color palette, I create an environment of organized chaos. I love depicting overwhelming and oversaturated scenes within my paintings.
Privacy
This translates into heavy inspiration from music, text, and pop culture. My art also references social systems and relationships as, along with portraits, I paint playful images of domestic spaces. In my work, the juxtaposition of the mundane and the absurd is a critique and satire.
Spaces such as hair salons, nail salons, bathrooms, and laundromats are an inspiration and evoke the collective consciousness and memories of other Black femmes.
My work utilizes humor, distortion, and exaggeration as tools of resistance and, through this, explores themes such as class, consumption, memory, and the body.
Overthinking for Breakfast
At this point in my practice, I’m relying on my intuition, choosing colors and objects as I’m working. This manifests in my use of what’s in my environment, such as the nutrition facts on my cereal box or labels on my hair products, to collage into my paintings.
I’m currently wrapping up my year-long residency at Pittsburgh’s Brew House Arts. This was my first residency, and it was the first time I had my own studio space.
Nostalgia
I grew a lot this year as an emerging artist. I developed my style and built worlds within my paintings that excited me. Pittsburgh was the first place I decided to pursue an artistic practice, and it has been great to connect with the creative community here! I’ve always been into fashion and design, so in the future, I’d love to explore making clothes and return to screen printing.
Overall, I’m excited to see how my practice will evolve over the next few years as I experiment and incorporate more of my Caribbean heritage into my work.
