In the art world, 26-year-old sculptorMurjoni Merriweatheris one of many addressing this grave imbalance.
“I told my teacher, ‘I don’t like the [pottery] wheel.
Can we do something else?
Courtesy of subject
‘,” she recalls.
Several class trips to museums revealed a marked lack of pieces that humanized Black people.
It made her want to create art that is more true to the Black American experience.
J A Z E L L EandA D H A R A
But it wasn’t until college that Merriweather started producing the sculptures she’s known for.
Her studies allowed her to dive deeper into her artistry and focus on portrait sculptures.
“I wanted him to fit the stereotype of a ‘scary’ Black man.
S E E M E
Merriweather is intentional about how she makes each piece, from the actual sculpting to the naming process.
Each bust is given a name that is written in all caps with a space between each letter.
She chose the color for her friend’s nickname: Blue.
Polaroid of Murjoni Merriweather and artist Pink Siifu with the sculpture she made inspired by him,P I N K S I I F U
She’ll get ideas from social media, too those go in an Instagram folder.
“A lot of my sculptures’ names come from the actual people they were inspired by.”
The result is a 35-inch masterpiece covered in multi-tonal neon green plaits the artist braided and dyed herself.
D E N I C I AandK A M I L
She added a septum ring and a smatteringof piercingsto the statue’s ears to match Oshundara’s own.
The series seeks to honor the diversity of Black hairstyles, using kanekalonbraiding hairas its medium.
That itself is a part of Black culture.”
S H I N I N ‘andE L A R A
Though Merriweather’s artwork affirms Black beauty, she admits that she struggled with loving herself.
It felt almost contradictory for her to be making artwork about self-love as she wrestled with the concept.
“How can I tell someone to love themselves if I’m struggling to do that?”
Those feelings inspired her to create the S H I N I N ' series in 2021.
Each work is quite appropriately covered in glitter, partly a result of experimentation that started in 2016.
“[I want] to immortalize each and every one of us,” Merriweather says.
