The ICA Facade Project launched in 2020 with inaugural artist Amir H. Fallah, garnering wide acclaim in conjunction with the ICA’s role as a Vote Center for the 2020 November election. With the success of our inaugural Facade Project, we are looking forward to presenting the next project in 2021 with Ghanaian artist Conrad Egyir. This exhibition will be on view on the facade of the ICA San José fall of 2021.

Egyir is a painter based in Detroit, MI, who creates bold, bright, graphic narrative paintings and portraits that stylistically pull from pop art, political propaganda, and religious art. His iconography is drawn from superstitious symbols of West Africa, cultural anachronisms, and art history. Redefining frame and form, Egyir’s paintings take the shape of stamps, postcards and notepads, presenting his figures as commemorative memorabilia honoring people of the African diaspora. At its core, Egyir’s work is about community and identity told through a language of painterly delight, making him a powerful artist for our next Facade Project.

Egyir’s narrative paintings often represent geographical places, exploring citizenship, migration, and revolutions of those locations, which lends well to the spirit of the ICA Facade Projects as a space on which artists reflect on the pressing issues of the diverse neighborhood of the San José SoFA (South of First Area) District, and the many communities surrounding us. As a small brick building amongst growing developments, Egyir’s Facade Project will establish the ICA as a physical art space and a place for community.

Conrad Egyir: The Facade Project is generously supported by Lead Sponsors Pamela and David Hornik. Generous support is provided by Exhibition Sponsors Brook Hartzell and Tad Freese.

About Conrad Egyir 
Conrad Egyir (b. 1989, Ghana; lives and works in Detroit) has an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. His work has been featured in group shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI) and Grand Rapids Art Museum (MI). Paintings have been acquired by the Rennie Collection (Vancouver, BC), the Jimenez-Colon Collection (Puerto Rico) and the Cranbrook Art Museum (MI). Egyir also boasts an ever growing following from artists including Beyoncé, who recently featured his work in her musical film Black is King. Egyir is represented by Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, CA.