Joyful Noise
February 21–23, 2025

 
        In her debut solo exhibition, artist and designer Meredith Schomburg asks the simple but profound question, “what if there is more?” More to uncover within the beauty and richness of our daily lives, and more to see than we have ever allowed ourselves to see? This new series of paintings and drawings are a kind of visual diary as the artist uses acrylic paint, oil stick, light, and varnish as tools to process her own life: in them, she wrestles with the tension between sorrow and joy, hope and desperation, loneliness and peace.

They are as much self-portraits as they are allusions to women seen throughout the Bible who have tasted grief and have met God face to face. In the diptych Mourning/Morning, the women facing one another represent past and future versions of the self, highlighting the space between what has been lost and what has yet to be gained. They are also manifestations of the figures of Eve and Mary, mother of Jesus, both life-givers and nurturers. In all ways, these two need each other – for the flames of their lives to burn, and for the narrative of redemption to become fully realized. In Do you see me/Do I see you clearly, the pleading woman is begging to be seen by God, asking for a new story to be grafted onto the burnt end of her life. The antelope kneeling close by, and angelic figures hovering above her head, offer the hope that provision is possible.

In creating this collection, Schomburg pulls inspiration from Byzantine Iconography (the representation of Christ, the holy mother, and saints in painting and mosaic of late antiquity into the Middle Ages) by incorporating gold paint into her works and highlighting single figures at the center of each frame. Even more than this, the artist engages in a practice that was common during this historic period, where art was believed to have the power to move a viewer emotionally and spiritually. Byzantine icons acted as conduits between a worshipper and their Lord and were believed to have the capacity to heal and protect those who viewed them.

Similarly, Schomburg challenges our tendency to limit prayers to speech alone, asking us to consider the incarnational possibilities of our prayers taking on a physical form. There are moments where literal prayers have beenetched into the canvas and then veiled by more paint, conversations between the artist and God that occurred during the process of creation.

The vibrant colors and shapes in her work also invite you to draw in close, only to realize there is more to discover if you slow down enough to see it. Light itself is an endless and infinite material used to activate the paintings, which change drastically as day shifts to night. Certain details are hidden unless you move your body to gain new perspectives, allowing the light to catch, creating a dance between you and the work.

There is a spiritual realm lying on top of our reality, and these paintings and drawings pull from both. They are journal entries to process hard truths and they are instruments for understanding what has come before us and what might come after. They are quiet conversations and they are your favorite songs, blasting from a boombox. They are a joyful noise and invite you to join in the song.

Grace Oller

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Meredith Schomburg is an artist and illustrator based in New York, originally from North Carolina. Her art practice blends a career in commercial design and illustration with explorations of physical mediums, predominantly painting. Meredith's approach is heavily influenced by her degree in graphic design and over eight years in the design industry, working in product, branding, and digital illustration. She has collaborated with globally recognized brands, including Apple, Nike, Coca-Cola, Adobe, Airbnb, and Saucony. In 2023, she was named a finalist for The One Club's Young Guns 21. Meredith's digital work has provided a playground to develop her unique visual language, celebrating movement and life through bright colors and exaggerated, abstracted forms.While digital work offers endless iterations, Meredith also values the patience and attention required by physical materials. These limitations, she believes, provide her personally with a more authentic way to explore themes of faith. Recently, her art practice has focused on re-enchanting inquiry of spiritual reality—using materials and imagery to ask questions of the sacred relationship we have to God and each other.
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