About
Merik Goma (born in Manistee, Mi in 1987.) is a photographer and installation artist. He holds a BA in psychology from Fredonia university. Merik creates narratives and builds worlds around themes and ideas that are informed by his own engagement in the world and working to understand his own experiences. Some of the themes based on these internal dialogs are about transition and understanding absence. In his studio, he brings to life abstract emotive states through carefully staged photography using constructed domestic environments. His technique is painterly in execution, with close attention paid to color and lighting
His work has been exhibited across the US, most recently at The Detroit Institute of Art, and the 2022 New England Triennial. He was an inaugural fellow of the NXTHVN Fellowship, receiver of the FY21 Fellowship Artist of Excellence grant and the inaugural Joyce C. Willis Artist in Residence
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EDUCATION
2014 BA Fredonia University, Fredonia NY (Psychology)
SOLO/TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS/
2025 Intersections part II Andrew Reed Gallery, New York, NY
2024 Narratives, Lighthouse Works, Fishers Island, NY
2024 Jeffrey | Merik, Andrew Reed Gallery, Miami FL
2024 HVÍSL Í VEGGJUNUM, Kannski gallery, Reykjavik, Iceland
2023 Photo Fairs Solo Both, Management, New York,NY
2023 Your Absence is My Monument; When Your Being Was My Everything, Management Gallery, New York, NY
2023 My Heart is Light in the Void, Amistad Cultural Center Hartford, CT
2022 Your Absence is My Monument, Real Art Ways Hartford, CT
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025 This is Not a Retreat!, Ford Foundation, NYC
2024 Mirror of the Mind, El Espacio 23, Miami FL
2024 Captured Perspectives, Art06870 Gallery Greenwich, CT
2024 Photographic Storytelling, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven CT
2023 Various Flowers, Hirschl and Adler Modern, New York, NY
2023 Journey Around My Room, MECA&D Portland, ME
2022 Conscious Response: Photographers Changing the Way We See, Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI
2022 New England Triennial, DeCordova Lincoln, MA
2022 Perpetual Ebb, Purdue College, West Lafayette, IN
2021 Still, Life! Mourning, Meaning, Mending, 21c Museum, Louisville, KY
2021 Legacy & Rupture, City Gallery, New Haven, CT
2020 CEPA Member Show, Buffalo, NY
2019 Art Basel, Miami, FL (Tilton Gallery)
2019 Group Show, NXTHVN Fellows, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
AWARDS, RESIDENCIES & HONORS
2026 Lunder Institute for American Art Fellow, Waterville, ME
2025 Sculpture Space AIR, Utica, NY
2024 Artist's Resource Trust grant, Sheffield, MA
2024 Fountain Head, Miami, FL
2023 LightHouse Works Residency, Fishers Island, NY
2021 Inaugural Amistad Fellowship, Hartford, CT
2021 Real Art Ways Award, Hartford, CT
2021 Artistic Excellence Award: Connecticut Office of the Arts
2019 Inaugural NXTHVN Studio Fellowship Program New Haven, CT