Biography

Kamille Simone is a painter and writer based in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Her relationship to spirituality and ontological frameworks is represented with symbols and materials from metaphysical ephemera, transcendental painting, and Black American assemblage. She is an Arts Adjunct Professor and Administrator at George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. She received a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MFA from George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. She was a 2022 Torpedo Factory Art Center Post-Grad Resident Artist. She showed her work in exhibitions at the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Gallery: Eye Street Gallery, Anderson Gallery, Bronx Art Space, Richmond Library, Studio Two Three, Center for Craft, Gallery 5, and Target Gallery among other spaces.

Artist Statement

I have clung to the notion that abstraction acts as a form of decolonization for Black visual artists. It spurred me to more decidedly explore abstraction by way of hard edge painting in 2019. Out of this time came Triangle Painting, centering my desire to queer the traditional painting surface by using a triangular base instead of a rectangular one, using a queer color palette one could find on a flag, and adding the grid as an autobiographical and mystical motif. Drawing Table also stems from this time. It features a disassembled drawing table given to me by a queer mentor and signals my departure from a primarily illustration-based pedigree.

I later began referencing my time outside: playing and grounding along new and familiar trails, much more in my abstraction. I now create paintings and installations with transcendental markers, referencing a divinity in nature that often mitigates feelings of marginalization. This lineage of symbols linked to transcendental works and metaphysical imagery largely consists of hourglasses, the sun, 8-pointed stars, and landscape-infused color palettes. I hope to both highlight and examine these motifs because of the affinity and difficulty I have with some* related spiritual and ontological modalities and their proximity to harm and appropriation.

photography by: farah of fdrphotography, regina battle, and catie leonard

email: kamillej_mfa@gwu.edu