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Form and Function, Future and Fantasy: Marryam Moma



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Queen of Clubs, 2024

Marryam Moma

Mixed media collage

24 x 36 in



Collage

Representational

Atlanta, GA



Marryam Moma (b. 1987) is an artist whose architecture and modeling background feeds her series-based, multi-media practice that is grounded in paper cut collage, and explores themes of leadership, fantasy and the future.


In 2016, Marryam arrived in Atlanta, hungry to start the next chapter of her life. She had modeled for fourteen years in New York City, and had most recently lived and worked in Shanghai. Raised in Nigeria, the daughter of an architect, Marryam had arrived in the US to study art and architecture at the tender age sixteen. She had been a practicing architect, a model, and had even obtained a MBA. But her hobby was always creating art. What if she could turn her hobby into her profession? Marryam had come to Atlanta at the urging of her siblings. “You should move here! There’s more space here!” Marryam wanted more space, but even more than physical space, she wanted space to dream and to manifest those dreams. That opportunity was what had drawn her to the US. Marryam began to show her art and network in Atlanta, which led to her being awarded the Migration residency at TILA Studios. The rest, as they say, is history.


"My work is about empowering others and also myself. I don’t want to be pigeon holed into moving the way society wants me to move. I do things that make my heart sing."

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Marryam's Story


As a student studying art and architecture at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Marryam started to collage. Collaging was first a way for her to visualize architectural concepts, thinking about how people move through and interact with space, but it soon also became a form of personal expression through artwork. In many ways, Marryam was following in the path of her mother, a practicing architect who had her own firm. Marryam had fond childhood memories of her mother, sitting in her studio during breaks, sketching Marryam and her twin brother. Marryam was maybe 6 or 7 when she remembers thinking “Mom looks really happy and peaceful. Whatever she’s doing over there, I want to do that.” 


Marryam had started college in the US at age sixteen. She was immersed in a new culture, while becoming a young woman. Marryam’s classmates were curious about her Tanzanian Nigerian heritage, so she found herself in the awkward position of educating her peers and dispelling misperceptions. The environment was stressful, and to relieve stress and affirm herself, Marryam began creating personal collages, which sustained her and gave her confidence as she navigated college life. After graduating, Marryam worked for her mother’s firm for a time, but she decided that she didn’t want to practice architecture. Instead, she began a career as a model in New York City, inspired by Grace Jones, a childhood idol. Marryam worked as a model for over a decade, first in New York and later in Shanghai.


In 2016, Marryam moved to Atlanta to be closer to her siblings who had settled in Forsyth County. They began to ask her to create artwork as gifts and encouraged her to show her work publicly. Marryam opened herself up to the community in Atlanta, volunteering at art spaces, going to museums, meeting people, and she started to get a sense for the artistic pulse of the city. One of her contacts invited Marryam to exhibit in a group show focused on women safety and body autonomy. The manager of a residency program for TILA Studios, an arts group focused on supporting Black women, in Atlanta saw Marryam’s work at the show. “I love your work,” she told Marryam. “We have an artist residency that we’ve put out a call for. It’s due in 36 hours. An artist based here in the city, Tracy Murrell, is in Morocco on residency and she is donating her space for this residency for 6 weeks. We’re taking submissions, I think you should apply.” Marryam applied and was awarded the residency. When she walked into the space, she noticed that one of her pieces was already in Tracy’s studio. Marryam and Tracy had never met, but apparently a friend of Tracy’s had bought one of Marryam’s works and gifted it to her. The piece had been hanging in the studio for the past 18 months. “This is crazy! I’m meant to be here,” Marryam said to herself. For the next six weeks, Marryam took full advantage of the residency opportunity. She created 50 works, and further broadened her reach within Atlanta’s artistic community and beyond. Having a large, dedicated studio space and uninterrupted time to focus allowed her to develop a unique and powerful aesthetic, pulling together elements from her experiences: discipline and clean lines from her architecture training, the knack for compelling portraiture from her modeling background and the layering and texture from her collage techniques.


Marryam’s first notable series of work is called Iconoclasts. These beautiful works, often large scale works with joyful images of her subjects adorned by flowers and fauna, pay tribute to icons of artistic expression: writers and musicians like Nikki Giovanni, Betty Davis, and Stevie Wonder. More recently, Marryam has been creating a series called Wunderland Noir, a re-interpretation of the classic film Alice in Wonderland through Marryam’s imagination and visual language. She conceived of this series when she was pregnant with her first child and dealing with the tensions between Marryam the mother and wife, and Marryam the independent woman and world traveler who courageously pursues her dreams. Because the theme was so personal, Marryam decided to use herself as the muse in this series. Through the work, she was able to reconcile these different parts of herself, allowing her imagination to reframe perceived limitations into opportunities for growth.


Marryam continues to create works for the Wunderland Noir series, but her most recent series is called Melanin Machina. It began as a tribute to Lauren Baeza, the curator of African Art at the High Museum in Atlanta, and has since expanded to include other leaders like Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, the late Civil Rights icon John Lewis. For the first time, she featured children in this series, introducing Zoe and Nola as representatives of the future baton carriers for the legacies we leave behind. A core idea explored in the series is that we now live in an area of hybridity where we interact with technology on a near-constant basis and use technology to be effective leaders in our respective fields. Recently, Marryam was selected along with five other artists to create a sculpture for an exhibition at the United Nations in New York City. She integrated a collage of works from the Melanin Machina series into a sculpture made in the shape of a talking drum.


Marryam has seen first-hand how technology can enhance her practice as she translates her ideas to reality. Recently, she completed a six-week residency in Portugal where she worked with fabrication machines and technicians to create art on a larger scale. She is already putting those new skills to use with an upcoming sculpture project on Atlanta’s beltline set to debut in November of this year. Over the next few years, Marryam hopes to broaden the reach of her practice internationally because she believes the stories she tells travel, connect and heal across cultures.



Aesthetic


Marryam’s aesthetic features clean lines, confident portraiture and layering through collage. An element commonly found in Marryam’s work is the use of flowers, which are often sourced specific to the subject or muse of the piece. She works with a range of materials, from crushed glass to glitter, dried flowers, embroidery, and photography. Her works generally have a sense of elegance and uplifting spirit that highlight confidence, empowerment, and happiness. There is also often a fantastical, futuristic element to her work that speaks to her vibrant imagination and future-orientation.


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Young Vanguard, 2024

Paper cut collage with brass elements on archival paper

25 x 25 in



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Prodigy, I Am 2023

Paper cut collage reconstructed with archival paper, gold leaf, crystals, brass bracelet by jewelry architect Lorraine West, custom braille

30 x 30 in



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Into the Abyss of Wonder, 2024

Paper cut collage reconstructed with archival paper, acid free adhesive, dried and preserved fauna

32 x 48 in



Process


Marryam typically starts with an inspiration that can come from a variety of sources. It could be a personal experience, a conversation with a loved one, a film, or leaders who inspire her. From there, she gathers materials with meaning, for example, a specific flower, a fabric from a trip, a memory, and begins layering. Many of her pieces are paper-based, but she is increasingly using creating in mediums in particular wooden sculpture. Marryam will often add works to on-going series and expand them with new techniques. For example, after a recent trip to Tanzania, Marryam created a set of sculptural portals for her Wonderland Noir series.


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