Draft:Kristin Simmons

"I'd argue it ticks the fourth category, 'The person's work (or works) has: (a) become a significant monument, (b) been a substantial part of a significant exhibition, (c) won significant critical attention, or (d) been represented within the permanent collections of several notable galleries or museums.' Being selected by the United Nations as the sole artist to represent 'empowerment of women and girls' is being a substaintial part of a significant exhibition; she has also garnered significant critical attention given her lengthy resume, media coverage and exhibitions with selective sponsors, including Bergdorf Goodman and Opera. Fraibalinho (talk) 14:33, 25 January 2024 (UTC)"

Kristin Simmons is an American artist working in mixed media. Her work focuses primarily on capitalism, gender and psychology, often employing satirical images in a pop-art style. She was born and lives in New York City.

Early Life
Simmons attended Deerfield Academy for high school before earning her degree at Columbia University. She began working in advertising as an account director and director of creative strategy, producing art as a personal side project and posting it on her Instagram account. She began selling her art, and through word of mouth, she eventually grew big enough to quit her job and focus on art full-time starting in 2016.

Career
Simmons is a mixed-media artist, primarily in acrylic and oil painting and silkscreens. She has cited James Rosenquist, Tomas Vu Daniel, Depeche Mode and Jane Fonda as inspirations, and her work has drawn comparisons to Barbara Kruger, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.

In 2017, she was one of 30 artists featured in the Whitney Museum as part of Debtfair, an exhibit by artists who collectively owed millions of dollars in debt. The piece “highlights the art world’s tangled relationship with finance,” according to Salon, “...and it’s just one of the ways artists are following the money to shed light on the infamous opaque $50 billion global art market and how the economy of culture really works.”

In 2019, she was selected to be the United Nations artist in residence to represent the organization’s Sustainable Development Goal #5, the empowerment of women and girls. The first piece she was commissioned to produce was called Women Of Change, comprising 80 pennies, each featuring a different trailblazing female politician, artist, activist or business leader from the last century; it signified how women continue to earn an average of 80 cents to every dollar earned by men.

She was commissioned by Bergdorf Goodman to produce an interactive installation at the department store’s flagship location on Fifth Avenue in 2022. Her installation, Obsessions + Confessions, peppered the building’s seventh floor with glittery and ironic examples of consumerism that appear normal from afar but more unusual up close, such as a gumball machine filled with vodka bottles and botox vials. Time Out New York called it a “dazzling exhibit of satirical art”.

The following year, Simmons was chosen as an artist in residence at the 2023 Hamptons Fine Art Fair.

YouTube influencer Casey Neistat owns one of her pieces, and luxury real estate broker Ryan Serhant hangs two in his office. In 2022, she was selected as the debut featured artist for an NFT-minting tool created by Alteon.io for Opera Crypto Browser. She has appeared on TV and podcasts to discuss her work, lifestyle and the effects of colors on human psychology.

== Exhibitions and installations  == Hamptons Fine Art Fair, Southampton Fairgrounds, Southampton, 2023

Obsessions + Confessions, Bergdorf Goodman, New York City, 2022

Beauty Comes From the Heart, LRN, New York City, 2021

Bright Light, Big City, Phillips, New York City, 2020

Money Power & Glory, CORE Gallery, New York City, 2020

Onward, the United Nations, New York City, 2019

The Edge of Glamour, Studio 522, New York City, 2019

Landscapes, East End Culture Club, Southampton, 2019

Parallels, Non-Finito Gallery, New York City, 2018

Hamptons Art Fair, the Bridgehampton Museum, Bridgehampton, 2018

Psycho-Belle, ChaShaMa Gallery, New York City, 2018

American Expense, Denis Bloch Fine Art, Los Angeles, 2018

The Los Angeles Art Show, Denis Bloch Fine Art, Los Angeles, 2018

Context: Miami Basel 2017, Markowicz Fine Art, Miami, 2017

Desperate Pleasures, Galerie Mourot, New York City, 2017

Debtfair: The Whitney Biennial, the Whitney Museum, New York City, 2017

Back to Our Future, SVA Galleries, New York City, 2016

Beauty is Life’s E-Z Pass, the ICP Printfest, New York City, 2016

American Dream, the Affordable Art Fair, New York City, 2016