Derriann Pharr

Taylor Simmons’s (b. 1990, Atlanta; lives and works in New York City) paintings, prints, and drawings incorporate hazy fluorescent depictions of everyday life, forming an archive of compulsively collated imagery. His layered compositions, distinct for their neon-colored palette and balance of acrylic, oil, airbrush, and wax, slip between figuration and abstraction and specificity and ambiguity. Citing music, found photographs, and viral video clips as inspiration, the artist takes impulsive riffs and remixes that coalesce in his organic and all-over dynamic works. His paintings sample fragments of his surroundings, from his upbringing in Atlanta to his years in New York City, question the conventional performance of masculinity, and recall universal themes of youthful play, human nature, and work and rest.

Derriann Pharr (b. 1998, Winfield, AL; lives and works in Birmingham, AL) is an interdisciplinary artist who uses an array of media to investigate intersections of identity, safe spaces, memory, and abjection of the human body. Transformation rests at the heart of Pharr’s practice. She envisions her figures as a mirror: reconciliation with her internal worth and self-compassion are both negotiated each time a figure is born. Documenting her transition into womanhood has been reliant on a necessary examination and collapse of false beliefs—choosing mixed media practices as a mode for mending relationships with self. Her fixation on self-esteem, particularly as it intersects with the lack of intrinsic and physical consideration of marginalized bodies in the American South, has shaped an interest in broadening the scope of representation within the historical context of figure drawing. Her figures transcend the limitations of naturalistic representation by shapeshifting in a riot of gestural marks, their contours fluid and ambiguous and exempt from the confines of societal scrutiny. Choosing to draw bodies without the natural form in mind allows them to exist away from the constraints placed upon her own.

Simonette Quamina (b. 1982, Ontario, Canada; lives and works in New York) was born in Canada and spent her early childhood living between the Caribbean, South America, and New York City. Her diverse upbringing is constantly woven into the narratives of her work through the reconstruction of personal and collective histories. Quamina creates monumental prints and haunting collaged drawings meticulously done in graphite, which grants her the space to reevaluate perceptions of cultural, racial, and social norms, and romanticized ideas of the Caribbean. Simonette’s practice lives at the intersection of quiet rebellion and technical mastery. She is a printmaker who strives to preserve tradition but also subvert it.