“We’re gonna have to agree to disagree.” —Xaviera Simmons and Maria Brito
With an artistic output that spans photography, video, installation, and performance, artist Xaviera Simmons engages as many media as she does themes. In 2018, Simmons was a recipient of Agnes Gund’s Art for Justice Award, in the category of “Imagining Justice” Art Grants, for her work Continuum, which uses Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series as a springboard to explore themes of discrimination, disenfranchisement, law, and politics. This week at the Armory Show in New York, you can catch her work Chord (2019), commissioned by curator Sally Tallant for the Platform program of special projects for the fair.
On a blustery spring day in Central Park in 2018, Simmons sat down with Cultured Magazine contributor and consultant Mario Brito for a lively conversation covering – not surprisingly – topics as diverse as her latest works, politics of the day, reparations for the African American community, and music.