About the Artist: Michael Boyd Roman

Originally from Atlanta, GA, Michael Boyd Roman (b. 1981) comes to Northeast Ohio to serve as an Assistant Professor of Design & Black Visual Cultures at Oberlin College & Conservatory.  His mixed media and charcoal drawings seek to portray the ordinary grace of the contemporary Black experience informed by religious iconography juxtaposed against hip-hop and pop cultural references.  His extensive experience as an art educator includes teaching K-12, with his work in higher education beginning as the Visual Arts Program Director at Morehouse College in 2013.  Roman earned his MFA in drawing at California State University, Northridge in the spring of 2020, a MA in community arts from Maryland Institute, College of Art in 2007, and a BFA in painting from Syracuse University in 2004.

Worth a Negus Wait in Gold
Michael Boyd Roman
February 1 - March 9, 2025

About the Exhibition:

“Worth a Negus Wait in Gold” is a series that seeks to upend the contextual history of Black portraiture by focusing on images of the highest self. “Worth a Negus Wait in Gold” speaks to the unnerving experience of being both hyper-visible and invisible at the same time. The collection explores this constant supervision, either overt or covert, perpetuated by even well-intentioned people. Using mixed-media and charcoal drawings, Roman’s pieces feature the ordinary grace of the contemporary Black experience alongside religious iconography from the spiritual belief systems of the African Diaspora. It is then contextualized in scenes with modern motifs from Hip Hop and pop culture. Divine Black beauty radiates in Roman’s “Worth a Negus Wait in Gold,” a new and needed narrative abound. 

“In showcasing divine Black beauty, I provide contemporary images that are positive and spiritual to counter long-held historical narratives that are applied to contemporary representations of the Black experience. Using the symbols and iconography of spiritual perfection that have reinforced concepts of white supremacy and hegemony for centuries, I empower my figures to embody and occupy similar positions of prestige, power, and purity.”

– Michael Boyd Roman