Jamaica Pavilion


Arthur Simms

Artist Bio

Arthur Simms’s work examines cross-cultural dialogue between Jamaica and the United States. In 2001, he was the first Jamaican artist represented at the Venice Biennale. Following that exhibition, he created six new sculptures consisting of found objects gathered in his neighborhood in Queens. Simms’s work takes a formalistic approach to mixed-media, integrating elements of modernists such as Duchamp, non-western traditions including Australian Aboriginal art, and domestic craft techniques from the Caribbean.


Award Year
2001
Status

Completed

Arthur Simms

Arthur Simms

Brooklyn, NY

A native of Saint Andrew, Jamaica, Arthur Simms lives and works in Queens, New York. His work has been exhibited widely, including the York College Art Gallery, the Henry Street Settlement, and Brooklyn’s Sideshow Gallery. He has also been featured at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and Gasworks in London. Simms is a 1999 Guggenheim Fellow; he has also won funding from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Wheeler Foundation, and from the Rockefeller Foundation for a residency at Bellagio.