2026-2027 Grant A Stamp of Reality: Preserving the People

Grant 2024-2025

YAYA Artist

Tyrik Conaler is a New Orleans-based artist drawn to the question of how the environments we inhabit quietly shape who we become. “The streets you walk, the people you grow up beside, the culture that surrounds you, all of it seeps in quietly and becomes part of how you see the world. That idea sits at the center of everything I make,” he explains, noting the impact that growing up in New Orleans has had on him. He uses a variety of media to explore the relationship between place and identity. “I don’t bind myself to a single material or method: paint, photography, collage, glass making. Whatever a given idea requires, that is the tool I reach for,” states Conaler, whose focus is on the message rather than the media.

Conaler will use this grant to purchase a professional-grade camera that he will utilize to document his community, creating a photo series titled A Stamp of Reality: Preserving the People. “I aim to capture the qualities, textures, and quiet details that make every person unlike anyone else,” he explains. ”In a city as vibrant and transient as New Orleans, preservation feels like an act of love. The faces of the people in my community, the textures of the places we inhabit together, the quiet moments between big ones, these deserve to be seen and held.” The project will result in a printed collection of photos that explores what makes each of us singular. “Ultimately, A Stamp of Reality is a love letter to the people around me. Proof that each of them is worth looking at closely. New Orleans gave me my eyes. This is my way of using them,” reflects Conaler.

He sees his art practice as a deeply honest form of thinking out loud. Naturally introspective, he invites others to slow down and look inward. “Though my themes are rooted in the specific, this city, these people, this lived experience, my intention is to speak to something universal. Anyone who has ever felt shaped by where they came from, anyone who has looked at the world around them and wondered how much of it lives inside them, can find a point of entry in my work,” he explains.

Tyrik Conaler first joined the YAYA Guild in 2015.