ANDREA SHONNA SIMON
ARTIST STATEMENT
As the image of myself becomes sharper in my brain and more precious, I feel less afraid that someone else will erase me by denying me love.
-Jenny Slate
I find myself in a cyclical practice of reluctance and reckoning. Reluctance: a space of unsureness, fracture, and friction. Reckoning: moments of commitment and connection between disparate fragments.
Inspired by trauma, memories, intersectionality, biases, and empathy, I use storytelling as an impetus for creation. Creation and selection of materials becomes an opportunity for slow contemplation on my stories. I curate materials as a means of making connections. Sharing my work, then, acts as a space for the audience to permeate voids in my work with their own stories. Through vulnerability and empathy, showing the work becomes a subtle act of rebellion against social constructs and taboo-culture that leads to othering. I repeat this process as a means of constructing and clarifying my image of self, affirming my own worthiness of attention.
As I seek a reckoning of “Andrea Shonna Simon”, I get stuck in the strange significance I project on fragments of my past.
Am I Andrea Shonna Simon because my college roommate left asparagus on the counter every time she brought a new conquest home?
Am I Andrea Shonna Simon because my mom used to make me hot dog pizza and pizza burgers for special occasions?
Am I Andrea Shonna Simon because I scrubbed aqua blue carpet in my childhood living-room with bleach to surprise my mom?
Am I Andrea Shonna Simon because I realized my high-school sweetheart wouldn’t last when he stopped singing?
Am I Andrea Shonna Simon because I shallowly regret that I did not pursue a career educating the puberty-tainted minds of teenagers about math?
Am I Andrea Shonna Simon because I can shamelessly and horrifically recite every word to Fergaliscous and Redneck Woman?
Am I Andrea Shonna Simon because while my mom faced chemo, I would pet her balding head as I walked past her desk chair?
The list is endless. As I continue my obsessive self-reflection, I am choosing to celebrate fragments and the affirmation they provide.
Thinking of negative space as a term with two meanings: 1. Everything except the thing you’re supposed to pay your attention to and 2. An emotional space with negative associations. My practice toys with the prioritization of negative space as milestones. I use the interconnectivity of these milestones to painstakingly retool what “Andrea Shonna Simon” could possibly mean. I hope that by memorializing my fragments, I can show their importance and perhaps viewers will see the worthiness in their fragments too.
CV
EDUCATION
2020 Master of Fine Arts
Craft, Oregon College of Art and Craft facilitated through Pacific Northwest College of Art | Portland, OR
2018 Bachelor of Fine Arts
Painting, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg, MO
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 Lessons in Bending, NightJar Gallery | Kansas City MO
2020 Removing the Sheets, Disjecta Flex Space | Portland OR
2017 Not Beyond Comparison, solo exhibition, Gallery 115, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
GROUP AND JURIED EXHIBITIONS
2023 (Name TBD), Beco Gallery in collaboration with Smalter Gallery | Kansas City MO (Pending)
2023 Queer Experience, InterUrban ArtHouse | Overland Park KS (Pending)
2021 University of Central Missouri Faculty Exhibition.,University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2020 ReSolve, Upfor | Portland OR
2019 Displaced, Centrum Gallery, Oregon College of Art and Craft | Portland OR
2018 Studio Art & Art Education Senior Exhibition, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2018 Kansas City Artists’ Coalition Undergraduate College Student Exhibition, Mallin and
Charno Galleries | Kansas City MO
2018 50th Annual Citation Show, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2017 September Featured Artist, Old Drum | Warrensburg MO
2017 First Friday Performance Collective, WyCo Vintage | Kansas City MO
2017 One Nite Standard, Lalaland Gallery | Fayetteville AR
-in collaboration with Gage Bunting and Maggie Schmiegelow
2016 48th Annual Citation Show, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2016 You Watch Me, And I’ll Watch You, Closet Gallery | Warrensburg MO
-in collaboration with Maggie Schmiegelow
2015 47th Annual Citation Show, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2015 Opposing Forces, MyARTS Gallery | Kansas City MO
2014 International Baccalaureate Visual Arts Exhibition, Stansberry Leadership Building | Lee’s Summit MO
2013 5th Annual Longview Fine Arts Challenge, Cultural Arts Center | Lee’s Summit MO
2013 Going Places, MyARTS Gallery | Kansas City MO
GRANTS/AWARDS/HONORS
2019 OCAC Teach Out Scholarship recipient, $7,930, Pacific Northwest College of Art | Portland OR
2018 Commitment to Excellence Scholarship, $13,000, Oregon College of Art and Craft | Portland OR
2018 Undergraduate Research Grant recipient, $750 research grant, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2018 Richard A. Luehrman Art Scholarship for Travel and Study Abroad, $500, University of Central Missouri |
Warrensburg MO
2018 Faculty Selection, 50th Annual Citation Show, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2017 Undergraduate Research Grant recipient, $750 research grant, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2017 Student Leadership Award, Office of Student Activities, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2017 Faculty Selection, 48th Annual Citation Show, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2017 Sr. Robert G. and Sarah W. Schwartz Scholarship in Art and Design, $500 University of
Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2017 McNair Summer Research Intern, $2,800 research grant, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2017 McNair Scholar, Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program, University of Central Missouri |
Warrensburg MO
2016 Faculty Selection, 48th Annual Citation Show, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2016 Red and Black Scholarship,University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2015 Honorable Mention, 47th Annual Citation Show, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2015 Red and Black Scholarship, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2014 Red and Black Scholarship, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2014 Art and Design Portfolio Scholarship, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2014 Summit Art Scholarship, Summit Art | Lee’s Summit MO
2014 Kiwanis Artist of the Year Award, Kiwanis Club | Lee’s Summit MO
PUBLICATIONS
2020 Oregon Artswatch, A Program Finds Its Resolution, Briana Miller | Portland OR
2017 Simon, A. and Johnson, M. Finding Strength in Vulnerability Through Self-Exploration in the Visual Arts, The
McNair Journal, University of Central Missouri, Vol XXVI
2015 The Examiner, BIG, BOLD ART, Bill Althaus | Jackson County MO
PRESENTATIONS/ INVITED GUEST
2019 Guest Critic, Advanced Painting taught by Michelle Ross, Oregon College of Art and Craft | Portland OR
2018 Scholars Symposium and Creative Achievement Day, Provost Panel, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2017 Guest Lecture, Art, Academic Research and McNair, Color and Design taught by Marco Rossichelli, University of
Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2017 Artist Talk, Gallery 115, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2016 Scholars Symposium and Creative Achievement Day, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg, MO
COMMISSIONS
2021 Watercolor Double Portrait, Commissioned by Sophie Lamar | Kansas City MO
2020 Oil Foliage Still Life, Commissioned by Lauren Mallard | Sedalia MO
2020 Watercolor Double Portrait, Commissioned by Samuel Eames | Lees Summit MO
2018 Earrings, Commissioned by Reagan Chrisman | Blue Springs MO
2017 Acrylic Painting, Commissioned by Gretchen Morris | Warrensburg MO
2015 Acrylic Painting, Commissioned by Morgan Schomburg | Warrensburg MO
2014 Acrylic Portrait, Commissioned by Samantha Setzer | Warrensburg MO
2014 Acrylic Double Portrait, Commissioned by Lindsay Edwards | Sedalia MO
2014 Still Life Painting, Commissioned by Sara Witteman | Lees Summit MO
2013 Landscape Acrylic Painting, Commissioned by Angela Gravino | Kansas City MO
2013 Acrylic Painting, Commissioned by Greta Johnston | Topeka KS
EMPLOYMENT/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
2021-Present Adjunct Faculty, Department of Art and Design, University of Central Missouri | Warrensburg MO
2020 Pedagogy Independent Study, Karl Burkheimer, Pacific Northwest College of Art | Portland OR
2016-2018 Designer, Deem Dead Apparel | Warrensburg MO
2016-2018 Designer, Kerley Copy Center | Warrensburg MO
2013-2016 Artist, MyArtsKC- Independence | MO