In partnership with the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design announced that contemporary artist Conrad Egyir was selected as the 2026 – 27 Roman J. Witt Artist in Residence.
Born in Accra, Ghana and based in Detroit, Egyir is known for his monumental paintings and installations that blend West African folklore, diasporic histories, and contemporary visual culture. Working across painting, drawing, sculpture, and mixed media, his practice explores themes of migration, memory, identity, and the collective human spirit through richly layered imagery and symbolic materials.
As part of the Witt Residency, Egyir will develop a multi-part interdisciplinary project titled The River That Remembers Us, an immersive exhibition examining water as a site of memory, transition, and Black epistemology. Combining large-scale paintings, sculptural installations, archival research, and community-centered programming, the project draws from West African cosmologies and diasporic ritual practices to consider how memory is inherited through elemental and embodied experience.
Egyir received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Institute of Contemporary Art San José, Library Street Collective, and Jessica Silverman Gallery, among others. His work is included in the permanent collections of Pérez Art Museum Miami, Detroit Institute of Arts, Cranbrook Art Museum, and more.
