Meet the Artist: Oria Simonini
For artist Oria Simonini, a wall can be much more than a surface for a painting. It can become a place where stories are shared, communities come together and people see their own experiences reflected on a larger scale.
Simonini, a Latine visual artist, painter, muralist and community organizer based in Omaha, Nebraska, will be among the artists featured at the Columbus Art Gallery during Fall for the Arts on Saturday, September 19.
Her work ranges from intimate, small-scale pieces to expansive public murals, but throughout her practice she returns to questions of identity, migration, environment and the ways people experience the places around them.
Those themes are deeply personal.
Born in French Guiana to Argentine parents, Simonini grew up with the experience of being an immigrant, living biculturally and navigating the world bilingually. Those experiences continue to influence both the subjects she explores and the perspective she brings to her work.
Exploring People and Place
Simonini describes her work as figurative and often loosely rendered. Through her paintings and murals, she examines migrant and refugee experiences and the complicated relationships people have with their surroundings.
For Simonini, a place is never experienced in exactly the same way by everyone.
Class, race, culture and country of origin can dramatically shape how a person moves through, understands and belongs within a particular environment. Her artwork invites viewers to consider those differences while also recognizing the human experiences that connect us.
“My personal experiences as an immigrant, growing up biculturally, and being bilingual influence and tone my work,” Simonini explains in her artist statement.
That personal perspective gives her work an authenticity that carries from the studio into the public spaces where many of her murals are created.
Taking Art Into the Community
Simonini received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in December 2018.
In 2021, she began painting murals, opening a new chapter in her artistic practice and creating opportunities to work directly with communities and other artists.
Since then, her mural work has taken her throughout the region and well beyond Nebraska. She has created murals in Omaha, Lincoln, Council Bluffs, South Sioux City, Minneapolis and Chicago, as well as Oaxaca and Querétaro, Mexico.
Collaboration has become an important part of that work.
Rather than viewing public art as something simply placed within a community, Simonini has developed projects that involve relationships with fellow artists and the people who live in the places where the work is created.
Art Across Borders
That community-centered approach received additional support in 2022 when Simonini was awarded a grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts through The Populus Fund.
The grant supported a community-based mural project that connected Schuyler, Nebraska, and Santiago Sacatepéquez, Guatemala — bringing together communities across geographic and cultural borders through art.
In 2023, Simonini continued developing her artistic practice as a fellow at The Union for Contemporary Art in Omaha.
Whether working on a small painting or a mural stretching across an entire wall, Simonini uses art as a way to examine how people relate to one another and to the places they call home.
Her work reminds us that ideas of home, identity and belonging can be complicated — particularly for immigrants, refugees and people whose lives cross cultures and borders.
It also demonstrates the ability of art to create connections between people whose experiences may initially appear very different.
See Oria Simonini at Fall for the Arts
Visitors will have an opportunity to experience Simonini’s work at the Columbus Art Gallery during Fall for the Arts on Saturday, September 19.
The gallery will feature Simonini alongside fellow artists Eduardo Gardea and Gabriela de Anda as part of the daylong celebration of visual and performing arts throughout downtown Columbus.
Fall for the Arts runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with artwork on display throughout the day and scheduled musicians and performers appearing at venues across downtown.
The event is free and family-friendly and helps raise awareness and support for the Downtown Theatre restoration project.
Stop by the Columbus Art Gallery during Fall for the Arts, discover Oria Simonini’s work and experience how art can tell stories of migration, culture, community and belonging.
Originally posted by Fall for the Arts via Locable