PREVIEW: Christopher Myers to Speak at The Tang
03/18 @ The Tang Museum at Skidmore College, Saratoga
“I feel like in a time with so much political turmoil and questions like ‘where is our neighbor going to be tomorrow?’ his work really brings people together. That’s something we all need right now.”
The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College will host acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist Christopher Myers for an artist talk and Q & A on Wednesday, March 18, at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
Myers is an artist and author based in New York City working in fiber arts, children's books, theater, and film. In 2019, he gained wide recognition among the art world for a monumental 14-foot appliqué tapestry titled What Does It Mean to Matter (Community Autopsy). This work depicts silhouettes of people who had been killed by police, modeled from autopsy sheets indicating sites of fatal wounds, ultimately creating a powerful object telling the story of police brutality at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC acquired the work in 2021.
The upcoming artist talk was organized by Skidmore student Elio Gottschalk (‘26), an Art History and Education double major. Gottschalk chose to invite Christoher Myers for this lecture because of his multidisciplinary practice across artistic mediums and emphasis on education, closely aligning with the Tang’s mission.
“I'm a huge fiber arts person. I love to knit and crochet and I grew up in a big family of fiber artists,” Gottschalk said. “When I was thinking about who I wanted to bring in, Chris Myers really popped out to me because of his beautiful Applique works. On top of that,” they continue, “he is an amazing children's book author and illustrator and talks about the literacy and education of children in America, including incarcerated youth.”
As Gottschalk researched Myers’ career, they realized the artist’s work had been present in their life more often than expected.
“It’s funny because while doing more research, I realized there has been so many times in my life I’ve seen [Myers’] installation works while growing up in Brooklyn,” Gottschalk recalled. “He’s been such a big part of the Brooklyn and New York arts community.”
Myers focuses on telling the stories of African Americans and marginalized communities whose histories in records and mass media often don’t tell the whole truth. Particular works such as Odyssey 4, 2019 and Harlem is a Myth, 2025, a recent site-specific installation at the Studio Museum in Harlem’s Education Workshop space, really stand out to Gottschalk for their emphasis on storytelling. Gottschalk explains how Myers’ focus on topics like belonging is so important to discuss today.
“He really is an incredible storyteller. So much of his work deals with migration, but it's also this idea of finding community inside of otherness,” they explained. “I feel like in a time with so much political turmoil and questions like ‘where is our neighbor going to be tomorrow?’ his work really brings people together. That’s something we all need right now.”
Myers’ visit will hopefully spark conversation about multidisciplinary creative practice and how each medium can give artists different paths to discuss topics of identity in new ways.
“He works across so many mediums. Talking with him about how he combines those different mediums to shape the topic he deals with and the stories he tells will be super interesting.”
Gottschalk continues, “I think Skidmore students are interested in talking about the topics [Myers] approaches like global migration, censorship, and mythology, and I hope they will have space to learn more about that.”
Myers’ talk at the Tang offers students and community members the chance to discuss activism, storytelling and craft and the ways art can shine a light on untold histories and create community in times of political division. It’s a can’t miss event, for sure.