Christopher Myers facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Christopher Myers
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| Born | 1974 (age 50–51) Queens, NY, US
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| Education | Brown University |
| Known for | Tapestries, sculpture, stained-glass works, illustration, theater |
| Awards | Caldecott Honor (1998) Coretta Scott King Award (2015) BRIC Arts Media (2019) |
Christopher Myers (born 1974) is an American artist, writer, and illustrator of children's books. He creates many different kinds of art, like tapestries, sculptures, and stained glass. He also writes for theater and illustrates books. His art is all about telling stories and sharing ideas between different cultures.
He often explores how people's identities are shaped by moving to new places, whether by choice or not, and how different cultures mix. Experts say his work easily moves between different art forms, using both pictures and words. It also combines real-world research with myths and uses many different materials.
Christopher Myers's art has been shown in famous places like MoMA PS1 and the Art Institute of Chicago. He has won important awards for his book illustrations, including the Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award. Myers lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
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Life and Career of Christopher Myers
Christopher Dean Myers was born in 1974 in Queens, New York. He went to Brown University and graduated in 1995. He also studied art at the Whitney Museum of Art in 1996.
Christopher Myers is the son of Walter Dean Myers (1937–2014), a very famous children's book author. They started working together in the mid-1990s. Christopher would draw pictures for his father's books, and later, they even wrote some books together.
Becoming an Author and Artist
Christopher Myers started writing and illustrating his own books with Black Cat in 1999. He continued to publish his own books, like My Pen in 2015. In 2000, he began showing his art in galleries and museums.
His art has been part of big shows like "Greater New York" (MoMA PS1, 2005) and the Prospect New Orleans Biennial (2014). He has also had his own art shows at places like the Studio Museum in Harlem and the James Cohan Gallery. Since 2014, he has also worked on films, performances, and theater shows. He designs, writes, and directs these projects with other artists.
Exploring Art Through Tapestries and More
Christopher Myers uses many different art forms to tell his stories. He is especially known for his large fabric artworks called tapestries.
What Are Myers's Tapestries Like?
Myers's tapestries are bright, colorful, and have detailed patterns. He gets ideas from many places, like the amazing Quilts of Gee's Bend and the simple cutouts of Henri Matisse. He also looks at the art of Jacob Lawrence and different art styles from around the world.
His art shows have included projects where he worked with embroiderers from Vietnam. They created images inspired by rap songs. He also made large flag-like artworks for imaginary countries using old Egyptian sails. These works were influenced by the history of flags made by the Ghanaian Fante people.
Myers's tapestries often mix traditional art with strong messages. They tell difficult stories about things like old monuments, slavery, police violence, or climate change.
Stories in Fabric: Drapetomania and Sarah Forbes Bonetta
In 2019, Myers had an exhibition called "Drapetomania". This name refers to an old, false idea from the 1800s that said enslaved Africans wanting to escape were mentally ill. A critic from the Los Angeles Times said his large tapestries in this show were like banners or windows to the world. They showed people finding their place, voice, and freedom.
One powerful artwork, What Does It Mean To Matter (Community Autopsy) (2019), was a huge group picture. It showed nine people who had recently died from police violence. Each person was a silhouette made of dark fabric, with yellow and red shapes marking where they were hurt.
Another large fabric artwork, Sarah Forbes Bonetta as Omoba Aina as Persephone (2021), is 34 feet long. It tells the story of a 19th-century Yoruba princess named Bonetta. She was orphaned and enslaved, then given to the British as a gift. She grew up with Queen Victoria and later married a rich man. The tapestry connects her story to colonial history and the Greek goddess Persephone, who was taken to the underworld.
Sculptures and Stained Glass Art
Myers also creates sculptures that explore stories from different cultures and times.
Sculptures That Connect Histories
His project Echo in the Bones (2014) looked at how people grieve in Vietnam and New Orleans. It connected these places through the worldwide tradition of jazz music. For this, Myers created amazing brass instruments and costumes.
In his Desert X art show, The Art of Taming Horses (2021), Myers shared the forgotten stories of Mexican and African-American cowboys. He told a fictional story about two ranchers using bright, mythical tapestries and large steel horse sculptures. For both these projects, he worked with artists and craftspeople from all over the world. This made the art even more interesting by showing how cultures share ideas.
Myers also makes sculptures that combine different objects and materials. For example, Shackle and Light (2019) had a thick metal collar around a carved wooden head. Rods came out of it, holding many candles that lit up. This turned a symbol of being held captive into a beautiful chandelier that showed strength and freedom.
Stained Glass Art with Deep Meanings
Myers's recent shows have featured stained glass lightboxes. These works mix religious art with new versions of old myths. They celebrate historical figures who fought against unfair rule.
For example, Nat Turner (2022) shows an African-American rebel in a moment of great insight. Nongqawuse (2022) shows a Xhosa prophet sitting on a horned bull, like the Greek myth of Zeus and Europa. In 2022, Myers also created a stained-glass piece for the Brooklyn Academy of Music that honored artist Ralph Lemon.
Working in Theater and Film
Christopher Myers has worked on many plays, dance shows, operas, and films.
Collaborations in Performance
He often works with artist Kaneza Schaal. Together, they have created shows like Go/Forth (2016), which was about mourning. They also made Jack & (2018), which looked at what it's like to be in prison and then return to society.
Another important project was Cartography (2019). This show came from their work with children who had moved from their homes around the world. It explored the common experience of migration in a unique way.
For his theater and dance show Fire in the Head (2022), Myers worked with skilled craftspeople from Indonesia. They made shadow puppets that showed the inner struggles of famous dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, based on his diaries.
Myers also worked with artist Hank Willis Thomas on a short film called Am I Going Too Fast? (2014). This film was about poverty and how technology is growing quickly in Kenya. He was also the production designer for the opera Omar (2022). This opera was about a 19th-century Muslim scholar named Omar ibn Said.
Illustrating and Writing Books
Christopher Myers is well-known for his work as an illustrator and author. He has received many awards from the American Library Association (ALA).
Award-Winning Illustrations
He won a Caldecott Honor for his illustrations in Harlem (1998) and a Coretta Scott King Honor for Jazz (2007). Both of these books were written by his father, Walter Dean Myers. He also received Coretta Scott King Honors for illustrating his own books, Black Cat (2000) and H.O.R.S.E. (2013). In 2015, his illustrations for Firebird by Misty Copeland won a Coretta Scott King Award.
Myers's illustrations often combine painting, photography, and collage. A review in The New York Times in 2000 said his work changed over time. It went from detailed oil paintings to photos with lots of texture, and then to simple cut-paper pieces. These pieces had a "fresh, urban look" and reminded people of great collage artists like Romare Bearden.
Writing and Advocating for Diversity
Myers has also written articles for The New York Times about how children's books often don't show enough different races and cultures. He also wrote about the violence young people of color face.
In 2016, he started his own book imprint called Make Me a World with Random House Children’s Books. He did this partly to help bring more diverse stories and characters to children's publishing.
Books Illustrated by Christopher Myers
- The Shadow of the Red Moon (by Walter Dean Myers), 1995
- Harlem: A Poem (by Walter Dean Myers), 1997
- Monster (by Walter Dean Myers), 1999
- Blues Journey (by Walter Dean Myers), 2001
- A Time to Love: Stories from the Old Testament, (by Walter Dean Myers), 2003
- Autobiography of My Dead Brother (by Walter Dean Myers), 2005
- Love: Selected Poems (by E. E. Cummings), 2005
- Jazz (by Walter Dean Myers), 2006
- Looking Like Me (written by Walter Dean Myers), 2009
- Firebird (by Misty Copeland), 2014
- Jake Makes a World: Jacob Lawrence, A Young Artist in Harlem (by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts), 2015
- Into the Uncut Grass (by Trevor Noah), 2023
Books Written and Illustrated by Christopher Myers
- Black Cat, 1999
- Wings, 2000
- Fly!, 2001
- Lies and Other Tall Tales (stories collected by Zora Neale Hurston, adapted by Myers), 2005
- Jabberwocky (poem by Lewis Carroll, reinterpreted by Myers), 2007
- We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart (co-written with Walter Dean Myers), 2011
- H.O.R.S.E.: A Game of Basketball and Imagination, 2012
- My Pen, 2015
Where to Find His Art
Christopher Myers's artwork is part of the public collections in many museums. These include the National Gallery of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. His art can also be found in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Rubell Museum, and The Studio Museum in Harlem, among others.
Awards and Special Recognition
Christopher Myers has received several awards and honors for his work. He won a BRIC Arts Media prize in 2019 and a grant from the Art for Justice Fund in 2018. He also had an artist residency in Vietnam in 2013.
In 2018, he created a special billboard called Mayflowers for the For Freedoms "50 State Initiative," which encourages people to get involved in politics. In 2020, he made another billboard for Walls for a Cause NYC called My Body is a Burning House.
