Xaviera Simmons received her BFA from Bard College in 2004. She went on to the Maggie Flanigan Studio to complete the two-year Actor Training Conservatory while participating in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. Her solo exhibitions include Xaviera Simmons: Accumulations, Lightwork, Syracuse, NY (2015); Xaviera Simmons: Number 16, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO (2014); Xaviera Simmons, David Castillo Gallery, Miami (2013); When You’re Looking at Me, You’re Looking at Country, More Art, New York (2012); Salt 4, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City (2011); Wilderness, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York (2011); Junctures (Transmissions To), Goethe Institute / The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2010); Oscillation: For a Minute There, I Lost Myself, Museum of Art and Design, New York (2009); Perspectives 157: Electric Relaxation; Digital Good Time, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2008); The Hustle Never Stops in Lagos (et al.), Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA (2007); and How to Break Your Own Heart, Art in General, New York (2006).
Her group exhibitions include Where Do We Migrate To?, Varmlands Museum, Karlstad, Sweden (2015); When the Stars Begin to Fall, The Studio Museum In Harlem, New York (2014, traveling); Americana, Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami (2013); Tête-à-tête, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago (2012); Primary Sources, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2012); 30 Americans, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2011); Oceanomania: Souvenirs from a Mysterious Sea, Nouveau Musee National de Monaco (2011); Hydrarchy: Power and Resistance at Sea, Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo, Egypt (2011); Stargazers: Elizabeth Catlett in Conversation with 21 Contemporary Artists, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY (2011); The Record, Nasher Museum, Duke University, Durham, NC (2010); 30 Seconds off an Inch, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2010); In Practice, SculptureCenter, Long Island City, NY (2009); Negritude, Exit Art, New York (2009); Street Art, Street Life, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY (2008); Mixtape, Exit Art, New York (2008); Cinema Remixed and Reloaded: Black Women Artists and the Moving Image since 1970, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta (2007–9); Black Alphabet: Contexts of Contemporary African American Art, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland (2006); Frequency, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2005); Relics and Remnants, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Jamaica, NY; Video Show, Takt Kuntsprojectraum, Berlin (2005); and African Queen, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2005).
