Tracy Ann Simmonds Bio
Tracy Ann Simmonds is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice investigates identity, mental health, and the layered complexity of her Caribbean heritage. A photographer by trade since 2004, she has worked with a range of esteemed and celebrity clientele while devoting her creative energy to mixed media, sustainable art making, and cultural storytelling.
Approach
Blending photography, painting, and installation, Tracy Ann's work is marked by her signature use of texture, African textiles, ancestral proverbs, and found materials. Her recent series Tsunami, initiated in 2021, simultaneously explores the importance of creative expression for mental wellness, delves into collective trauma, and studies centuries-old Japanese waveforms. Using pointillism, recycled materials, and shredded "predatory lending" mail, she critiques environmental destruction and economic exploitation - particularly the 100+ billion credit card mailers flooding U.S. households each year, choosing them as her primary medium.
Process
Her distinctive process often also includes hair braiding, beading with pearls and culturally charged words of wisdom to create works that subtly challenge harmful systems. Tracy Ann is also the author and illustrator of The Vision Project: A Coloring Book for Black Girls Who Rock (2018), am empowering collection of portraits and symbols celebrating the beauty and brilliance of the African Diaspora.
Roots
Rooted in cultural practice, her time as a performing artist with Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago - while pursuing her B.A. in Photography at Columbia College Chicago - greatly shaped her multidisciplinary approach. Most recently, her role as Museum Assistant at the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum deepened her understanding of preservation and the institutional power of art history.
Based between South Florida and New York City, Tracy Ann is committed to using her voice, art, and installations to create radical spaces for healing, beauty, and dialogue.