Studio Museum in Harlem Announces 2026 Artist-in-Residence Cohort

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HARLEM, NEW YORK, NY, FEBRUARY 10, 2026 — The Studio Museum in Harlem today announced that Derriann Pharr, Simonette Quamina, and Taylor Simmons have been selected as the 2026 participants in the Museum's signature Artist-in-Residence program, which is funded by the Glenstone Foundation. The 2026 cohort is the first to work out of the J. Bruce Llewellyn Artist in Residence Center in the Museum’s new purpose-built home, which was inaugurated at the November 2025 reopening with an installation of works by nearly all former artists in residence. Proposed at the Museum's founding in 1968 and initiated in 1969, the residency has supported the work of generations of outstanding artists of African and Afro-Latinx descent and has nourished a creative community that has grown to over 150 alumni, including some of the most celebrated artists working today.

As the first artists to take up residency in the Museum’s new Artist in Residence Center, Pharr, Quamina, and Simmons will enjoy individualized studio space that includes a dedicated lounge for gathering and collaborative ideation. Over the course of the program’s duration, from March 15 until October 15, 2026, Pharr, Quamina, and Simmons will also receive institutional and material support; ongoing interaction with members of the Studio Museum community, including curators and Studio Museum Institute and Expanding the Walls participants; professional development guidance; a culminating exhibition in one of the Museum’s galleries; and an exhibition publication.

Thelma Golden, Ford Foundation Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, said, “It is with deep excitement that the Studio Museum in Harlem welcomes Derriann Pharr, Simonette Quamina, and Taylor Simmons as our 2026 artists in residence. Our new Artist in Residence Center was built as the Museum’s architectural core to acknowledge the program that has been at the heart of our mission since our founding. As the first cohort to inhabit this remarkable new space, Pharr, Quamina, and Simmons join the Museum at a historic moment, and I’m certain their exceptional practices will lay the groundwork for future artists in residence while building upon the legacy of this signature program. My sincere thanks go to Yelena Keller, Associate Curator, and Adria Gunter, Assistant Curator, for their work in shepherding this program.”

Yelena Keller, Associate Curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, said, “I am thrilled to see Derriann Pharr, Simonette Quamina, and Taylor Simmons usher in a new chapter for the Artist-in-Residence program. These artists, whose practices will continue to push the Museum’s mission, present an exciting opportunity for the Museum and our audiences to engage with the ways in which artists are making today.”

Derriann Pharr (b. 1998, Winfield, AL; lives and works in Birmingham, AL) is an interdisciplinary artist who uses an array of media to investigate intersections of identity, safe spaces, memory, and abjection of the human body. Transformation rests at the heart of Pharr’s practice. She envisions her figures as a mirror: reconciliation with her internal worth and self-compassion are both negotiated each time a figure is born. Documenting her transition into womanhood has been reliant on a necessary examination and collapse of false beliefs—choosing mixed media practices as a mode for mending relationships with self. Her fixation on self-esteem, particularly as it intersects with the lack of intrinsic and physical consideration of marginalized bodies in the American South, has shaped an interest in broadening the scope of representation within the historical context of figure drawing. Her figures transcend the limitations of naturalistic representation by shapeshifting in a riot of gestural marks, their contours fluid and ambiguous and exempt from the confines of societal scrutiny. Choosing to draw bodies without the natural form in mind allows them to exist away from the constraints placed upon her own.

Pharr has had solo exhibitions at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Scott Miller Projects, and Bells Gallery. Group exhibitions include the Gadsden Museum of Art and the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts. She holds a BFA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Simonette Quamina (b. 1982, Ontario, Canada; lives and works in New York) was born in Canada and spent her early childhood living between the Caribbean, South America, and New York City. Her diverse upbringing is constantly woven into the narratives of her work through the reconstruction of personal and collective histories. She creates monumental prints and haunting collaged drawings meticulously done in graphite, which grants her the space to reevaluate perceptions of cultural, racial, and social norms, and romanticized ideas of the Caribbean. Simonette’s practice lives at the intersection of quiet rebellion and technical mastery. She is a printmaker who strives to preserve tradition but also subvert it.

Quamina’s work has been exhibited at El Museo del Barrio, Smack Mellon, the Art Gallery at Pace University, Glyndor House Gallery at the Wave Hill Public Garden and Cultural Center, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, and the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. Quamina has held residencies in Dieu Donné Workspace, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Studio Program, and El Espacio 23. She is an alum of the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship. She earned a BA from the City College of New York and an MFA in printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Art and Design.

Taylor Simmons’s (b. 1990, Atlanta; lives and works in New York City) paintings, prints, and drawings incorporate hazy fluorescent depictions of everyday life, forming an archive of compulsively collated imagery. His layered compositions, distinct for their neon-colored palette and balance of acrylic, oil, airbrush, and wax, slip between figuration and abstraction and specificity and ambiguity. Citing music, found photographs, and viral video clips as inspiration, the artist takes impulsive riffs and remixes that coalesce in his organic and all-over dynamic works. His paintings sample fragments of his surroundings, from his upbringing in Atlanta to his years in New York City, question the conventional performance of masculinity, and recall universal themes of youthful play, human nature, and work and rest.

Recent presentations include solo exhibitions at Public Gallery, Helena Anrather, and Sixi Museum; and group exhibitions at Ward Gallery, CCProjects, Kravets Wehby Gallery, Half Gallery, Deli Gallery, Martha’s Gallery, the Particle Foundation, Marlborough Gallery, and Carlye Packer. Simmons was an artist in residence at the Macedonia Institute. His work is in the permanent collections of the X Museum, the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, Igal Ahouvi Art Collection, and the Sixi Museum.

About the Artist-in-Residence Program
The Studio Museum’s foundational Artist-in-Residence program gives emerging artists of African and Afro-Latinx descent an unparalleled opportunity to develop their practice and offers audiences the chance to view this work in an annual culminating exhibition. Alumni of the program, who now number over 150, include some of today’s most significant and innovative artists, including Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Jordan Casteel, Lauren Halsey, David Hammons, Maren Hassinger, Titus Kaphar, Simone Leigh, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, and Tschabalala Self.

Support for the Artist-in-Residence Program
The Studio Museum in Harlem’s Artist-in-Residence program is funded by the Glenstone Foundation. Additional support for the Artist-in-Residence program provided by the American Express Kenneth and Kathryn Chenault Sponsorship Fund; Joy of Giving Something; Jerome Foundation; and by endowments established by the Andrea Frank Foundation; the Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Trust; and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Additional funding provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

About the Studio Museum in Harlem
Founded in 1968 by a diverse group of artists, community activists, and philanthropists, the Studio Museum in Harlem is internationally known for its catalytic role in promoting the work of artists of African descent. The Studio Museum’s new home, situated at its longtime location on West 125th Street, opened to the public on November 15, 2025. Designed by Adjaye Associates with Cooper Robertson serving as executive architect, the building—the first created expressly for the institution’s program—enables the Studio Museum to better serve a growing and diverse audience, provide additional educational opportunities for people of all ages, expand its program of world-renowned exhibitions, effectively display its singular collection, and strengthen its trailblazing Artist-in-Residence program.

For more information, visit studiomuseum.org.

Visitor Information
The Studio Museum in Harlem is located at 144 West 125th Street, between Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard (Seventh Avenue).

The Studio Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, with extended hours on Friday and Saturday, from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm.

The Museum is open to Members on Saturday mornings, from 10:00 to 11:00 am, before the galleries open to the public.

Admission rates are offered as a suggestion, with Sundays free for everyone. Suggested rates are $16 for adults and $9 for seniors (sixty-five years and over), students, and visitors with disabilities (care partners are free). Admission is free for children sixteen and under.

Tickets to the Studio Museum may be purchased online at studiomuseum.org/visit or at the Museum.

Media Contacts
Sasha Cordingley
Studio Museum in Harlem
[email protected]

Meagan Jones
Polskin Arts
[email protected]