Kristin Simmons

(American, b. late 1980s)

“I think art should help activate spaces and make viewers feel warm, happy and excited when they look at the work.”
— Kristin Simmons

Rising Pop art painter and printmaker Kristin Simmons’s sharp-witted, barbed, and provocative artwork focuses on consumerism. While a critical commentary, it is also vulnerable and empathetic. Exploring pop culture, politics, capitalism, gender equality, and more, Simmons doesn’t avoid the polemical and yet her work doesn’t moralize; what one might consider wrongdoing, the artist sees more as human nature. Her work depicts the dichotomy between innocence and depravity, satiation and indulgence, believing in a point of transition that permeates all of reality. While her visuals may sometimes be sugarcoated, as in her Candyland boards, or silkscreened cookies, amongst an even bigger handful of Valium, her messages are not. Her body of work reflects everything in this world as a double-entendre. Her aesthetic juxtaposes colorful graphic and textual elements, which often contain neon colors, glitter, and childhood artifacts with contrastingly disturbing, darker meanings. She raises questions about what money does for us as an idea, the privileges and dangers it creates. Simmons observes pervasive cravings in our popular culture that cannot be fulfilled. Her artwork looks unabashedly at self-indulgent and pleasure-seeking choices – like the absolute gratification of consumption, which is seen from the perspective that all consumption originates from an attempt to distance oneself from pain or lead oneself closer to pleasure. Her unique voice, and perspective as female artist, is sparking thoughtful conversation, and activating positive change.

Simmons was born in the late 1980s and raised in Manhattan. She graduated from Columbia University in New York in 2012 with a dual major Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts and Art History. She began to work in advertising, and on her own time was a compelling, initiative-taking artist staying active on social media when people started wanting her artwork - and kept wanting it, until after 6 years, she made the liberating leap to full time artist. She’s had two solo shows and has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including at the 2016 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum in New York, as well as at DB Fine Art in Los Angeles, Miami Basel and Markowicz Fine Art in Miami, Non-Finito Gallery, SVA Galleries, the Hamptons Art Fair at the Bridgehampton Museum in New York, and several in NYC – the ChaShaMa Gallery, The Ivy Exhibition, The ICP Printfest, The Affordable Art Fair, and The LeRoy Neiman Gallery at Columbia University. She is one of the few living artists represented by eminent gallerist Eric Mourlot, who displays her work alongside that of Picasso, Miro, and Matisse and other artworld superstars. Some of her notable achievements include receiving the United Nations SDG5 Artist in Residence Award, National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Award, Orra White Hitchcock Award for Excellence in the Arts, and the NB Award for Sculpture and 2-D Art.

American Fine Art, Inc. is proud to feature the original works and limited editions of Kristin Simmons. Visit our 12,000 sq. ft. showroom in Scottsdale, Arizona or call today. Our website is offered only as a limited place to browse or refresh your memory and is not a reflection of our current inventory. To learn more about collecting, pricing, value, or any other art information, please contact one of our International Art Consultants. We look forward to giving you the one on one attention you deserve when building your fine art collection. We hope you find our website helpful and look forward to seeing you in Scottsdale soon.