Research Statement
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The color black acts as a catalyst, sitting at the nexus of consciousness and matter. It is a state of reflection, a source from which our dreams are shaped, and a site of surrender. Tenacious in its absence, transformative in its tolerance, the color black offers relief—a reservoir that devours our assumptions and arrests our perceptions, protective in its ability to render the invisible. Its presence is fluid, multivocal in its symbolism, and, like chiaroscuro, black grants illumination, confronting us with the inevitable truth: nothing is fixed.
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Within this sphere of poetic transience, where reflection and transformation converge, the Self becomes a medium—much like autoethnography, which analyzes lived experience to expose cultural truths. It is the embodiment of process and product, a somatic site connecting the political, social, and cultural across time. Synchronistically, autoethnography and the color black cultivate an alternative approach to canonical research and representation.
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At the intersection of history and psychology, my research traverses geography, sociology, semiotics, and philosophy, all guided by lived experience. I consider questions such as: How have disturbances such as the trans-Atlantic slave trade and settler colonialism echoed through time and continue to shape the present? What are the effects of perpetual tension? How can we challenge the visual and conceptual perceptions between the color black and darkness? I have come to recognize that grief is an inescapable shadow in the process of growth, and by embracing it, we carve out space for renewal—much like the color black, which both absorbs and transforms. My research is a search for connection—a quest to find a rehabilitating space where we can rediscover ourselves and our relations.
Artist Statement
My interdisciplinary practice explores the intersections of history, identity, and trauma through the lens of lived experience. I approach art-making as a process of reflection, transformation, and surrender, drawing upon personal stories and cultural histories to examine how the mind, body, and space interrelate. The color black functions as a catalyst within my work—sitting at the nexus of consciousness and matter. It is both a source of illumination and a protective force, devouring assumptions and arresting perceptions, while challenging the visual and conceptual boundaries between black and darkness.
The home serves as both a literal and metaphorical site in my practice—a space where emotional memories and the echoes of past trauma are encircled and made tangible. Through painting and sculpture, I create dynamic environments that reflect both personal and collective histories, interrogating the tension between interior sensations and exterior relationships. These works exist as somatic sites, connecting the political, social, and cultural across time, much like autoethnography, which examines lived experience to reveal broader cultural truths.
In my paintings, I excavate the voids of blackness, using light and subtle brushstrokes to uncover shifting domestic interiors. The work metamorphoses, with unresolved elements and material tension evoking the complexities of growth, grief, and transformation. Sculpturally, I use stone and curvilinear shapes to create precarious forms—fragile totems that speak to the intersections of mind, body, and space. My work is a search for connection, seeking to rediscover the rehabilitating potential of shared memory and collective healing.
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BIO
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Natia Lemay (b. 1985 in Toronto, Ontario) was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and is based in New Haven, CT. Her Interdisciplinary autoethnographic practice reflects her lived experience. Through personal stories, she interrogates the intersections between the mind, the body, and space to understand how these experiences relate to a broader cultural context.
Natia Lemay has exhibited widely throughout North America. The artist was selected for the 2024 Fountainhead residency in Miami and the 2022 Royal Drawing School Residency in Dumfries, Scotland. She was awarded the National Trust Prize at Expo Chicago 2024, with her work acquired by High Museum in Atlanta in addition to being collected by the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Minnesota Museum of American Art, The North Dakota Museum of Art and The Montclair Museum of Art. She received her BFA from Ontario College of Art and Design in 2021 with a minor in Social Sciences and her MFA from Yale School of Art in 2023.