Xaviera Simmons’s body of work spans photography, performance, video, sound, sculpture and installation. She defines her studio practice, which is rooted in an ongoing investigation of experience, memory, abstraction, present and future histories-specifically shifting notions surrounding landscape-as cyclical rather than linear. In other words, Simmons is committed equally to the examination of different artistic modes and processes; for example, she may dedicate part of a year to photography, another part to performance, and other parts to installation, video, and sound works-keeping her practice in constant and consistent rotation, shift, and engagement. Xaviera Simmons received her BFA from Bard College (2004) after spending two years on a walking pilgrimage retracing the Transatlantic slave trade with Buddhist monks. She completed the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program in Studio Art (2005) while simultaneously completing a two-year actor-training conservatory with The Maggie Flanigan Studio. She is a visiting lecturer and the inaugural 2019 Solomon Fellow at Harvard University and will be awarded The Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters from Bard College in Summer 2020. In 2019, Xaviera Simmons work is included in over fifteen museum exhibitions including ICA Boston, SFMOMA, The Phillips Collection (D.C.), National Museum of Wowen in the Arts (D.C.), Barnes Foundation, and many others. In 2017, Simmons’ solo shows include Harvard University, and recent museum purchases also 2017, include three works acquired by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Group exhibitions in 2017 include Wexner Center for the Arts; Prospect 4 New Orleans; Trussardi Foundation, Milan; Studio Museum in Harlem, MCA Chicago and numerous others. In 2015, Simmons was awarded the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (Robert Rauschenberg) Grant. Simmons has exhibited nationally and internationally where major exhibitions and performances include The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, The Public Art Fund, The Sculpture Center, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, and Brooklyn Museum, among many others. Her works are in major museum and private collections including The Museum of Modern Art, The Nasher Museum, Deutsche Bank, The Rubell Family Collection, UBS, The Guggenheim Museum, The Agnes Gund Art Collection, The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Studio Museum in Harlem, ICA Miami, High Museum, and Perez Art Museum Miami.