Karryl Eugene is a multimedia artist based in Baltimore. He works in various mediums such as video art, sound art, and painting. Karryl’s work is defined by the power of reflection, we’re he unpacks personal narratives, nurtures his emotionality, and contemplates his existence in the digital age.
Karryl’s work has been exhibited in Mickalene Thomas’s A Moment's Pleasure at the Baltimore Museum of art. He has also exhibited at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the ONART Gallery in Florence, and the Reginald Lewis Museums. In 2019, Karryl received the Elaine L. Schaefer Scholarship and the Eddie C. & C Sylvia Brown Family Foundation Brown Scholarship. Karryl has interned at the Hole, The American Medium, and Waller Gallery. Karryl currently is assisting as an exhibition assistant for Jaimie Warren's show The Miracle at Pioneer Works.
Within Karryl’s artistic practice, He manages and upkeep various creative endeavors. Such as being an in house artist for As They lay which seeks to curate projects & public events that foster collaboration, creative action + reflection, founded by Abdu Ali. Karryl assists with video art for various As They Lay events. Karryl Eugene and Pearson Chambers are collaborators on a radio station podcast called They Go Off, they use DJing as a reflective tool to articulate their present emotions and state of mind. Furthermore, Karryl helps assist in creative direction for an event party series called Diamond Fetish based in Baltimore. The team curates rotating DJ sets aimed to bridge the gap between Maryland Institute College of Art and the larger Baltimore social art/music scenes.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is about the power of reflection, we’re I unpack personal narratives, nurture my emotionality, and contemplate my existence in the digital age. The intersection of these various commentaries are influenced by the power of black radical imagination. By building on the foundation of my identity and having a stronger sense of self it allows me to push my imagination beyond the monolithic black males iconography that society often portrays.
HOME PAGE STATEMENT
My home page is a place where I collaborate with friends, family, and other creatives I'm inspired by. This stems from my deeper pursuit of engaging in collaboration to flourish, synthesize, and engage in dialogue with others in my ecosystem. The importance of this taking place on my website home page is a way to create more personal engagement and curation of my platform outside of social media. Using my platform to help showcase other artist's work is an important gesture to my black, brown, and artistic community. Creating a space to show my appreciation to my community's voices shows a larger extension of myself and what I want my artwork/branding to accomplish. The visual style of each homepage design is inspired by blogs and Tumblr layouts. Through personal dialogue and original content made for each page collaboration, I'm intending to radiate intimacy to be felt by these arrangements.
My homepage display titled Vision Board is in collaboration with my mother Karlin Housen, Artist Moses Leonardo, and Artist Eleni Marinos. They share and touch on themes such as manifestation, affirmation, and the power of imagination. My mother and I spoke about the empowerment felt when she left her corporate job to explore and follow her dreams and created self-manifestation for her own business and career! I highlighted important sections of the conversations in these zine-like page designs. Artist/friend Moses shared a poem that speaks on imagination, time, and how we as people have the power to shape our dream space reality. I created a sound piece to work in tangent with the poem. Additionally, I ask artist/friend Eleni to share a story she would want to communicate with others. Within her story, she talks about the difficulties of communications and how language and religion can cause moments of flaws in translations.