First artists from Harlem's new studios show their work until 3 January

You can see the first show from the Studio Museum in Harlem's new artist studios until 3 January 2027. The show is called A sustained becoming and features Derriann Pharr, Simonette Quamina and Taylor Simmons. They are the first artists to work in the museum's new residency centre. That building opened to the public on 15 November 2025.

What is on the walls

The three artists work across painting, collage, printmaking, drawing, sculpture and mixed media, the museum says. Each takes a distinct approach to figuration (the way artists draw or paint people). The show is grounded in cultural memory, and it imagines what has already happened and what is yet to come. Adria Gunter, an assistant curator, put the show together.

The three artists

Derriann Pharr was born in 1998 in Winfield, Alabama, and works in Birmingham. Her figure drawings explore identity, memory, self-worth and the bodies of marginalized people in the American South.

Simonette Quamina was born in Ontario in 1982 and works in New York. She makes large prints and collaged graphite drawings that revisit personal, cultural and Caribbean histories. One of her 2024 works is titled Catch a pacu, buss he back and salt um.

Pace University's page on her 2020 show The Night Gardener calls it her first solo exhibition in New York. Its works were layered black and white flashbacks to her childhood, the page says. That childhood moved between Canada, Guyana, St Vincent and the United States. She says graphite can reflect, absorb and transcend memory.

Taylor Simmons was born in 1990 in Atlanta and works in New York City. His layered, neon-toned works use acrylic, oil, airbrush and wax. His images draw on music, found photos and viral video, and they question conventional masculinity.

A residency with a long record

The programme was founded in 1968 and began in 1969. It has more than 150 alumni, among them Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Jordan Casteel and Kerry James Marshall. Its 2026 term ran from 15 March to 15 October. Glenstone Foundation funds the programme. The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts also give public funds.

My own attempt at drawing a face would need a very long residency.

Our view

In our view, three different methods under one roof is the draw of this show. A residency looks fairest when its work hangs together in one room.

Would you visit?