Simonette Quamina: Artnews @ Frieze London

EFA Studios Member Simonette Quamina was recently featured in an Artnews story about Frieze London - read more here! Established Artists Champion Rising Stars In a Can’t-Miss Frieze Project

Tessa Solomon writes: “Artist-to-Artist” is a standout of Frieze’s 20th anniversary programming, as it smartly subverts self-reference, instead projecting its hopes into the future by means of these rising and under-sung voices.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for Frieze to put artists—some who may not be new, but who aren’t mainstream—on this international platform,” Simonette Quamina told ARTnews.  Quamina, who was nominated by Alvaro Barrington, made an especially topical contribution given the fair’s preoccupation with the passage of time. 

A Praxis artist, she’s best known for her varied collage and printmaking techniques which incorporate autobiographical imagery. The newest works, shape-shifting graphite drawings which variously absorb and negate light, depending on the pressure she applied to the graphite, are a departure from her usual materials, though. Talking to ARTnews via phone from London, she was reluctant to concede the story unfolding here, though she said that like much of her work, they reflect the mutable nature of memory—in particular her memories of growing up across Canada, Guyana, Saint Vincent, and the United States.