About the Artist

Bio:

Chris Simonite is an artist and art instructor from Winnipeg who spends most of his time making paintings (and occasionally animations/videos/performances) based on pop culture, conspiracy theories and other things that lie at the murky edges. These days he spends most of his time painting with a Cubist inspired bent he calls Cubo-Weirdism.

He has three degrees (BA, BFA, MFA, if you must know) and has shown his art in four countries on Earth. He is also a member of the legendary (in their own minds) Frost Shield Kerfuffle Collective. His work is in private collections on three continents (also on Earth) as well as in the collection of the Province of Manitoba. He is represented by L'Original Gallery in Montreal. Follow them on Instagram @loriginal_org

Chris Simonite has a musical/comedy/performance art alter ego, a faux Cowpunk Star called Stan Dickie, who was the subject of his MFA thesis. He’s pretty sure the University of Ottawa never forgave him for it. 

My Story:

As far back as I can remember I wanted to do or make funny things. As a kid I dabbled in drawing because I loved funny comic strips, when I was four, I told my parents I wanted to be a rich clown. Hilarious, right? I eventually thought about being a stand-up comedian, or an actor who specialized in comedy but I was painfully shy. The only thing I was ever 'serious' about was music, and in spite of the shyness, I did pursue that for a while after getting my BA in History.

Spoiler alert: while I really wanted to be a rock star, you will not be shocked to hear that I'm not one. But, I never won a lottery either. And fun fact, I never did a newspaper comic, but I do have a webcomic : www.gorillainthemidst.com. And I gotta say: it’s pretty damned funny, if I say so myself, even though I haven't updated it in years.

Once I realized that I was never going to be a rock star I knew I had to make a living  so I worked as a graphic artist for a label printing company for eleven years. The best thing about the job was I often got to do design work and occasionally I got to draw cartoons. I remember being excited like a little kid the first time one of my cartoon drawings ended up on a printed label for a food product. I think it was a chicken or maybe a turkey. If you recall, cartoonist was on my list of childhood pipe dreams–er–ambitions.

The problem was, I had never practiced drawing enough to get really good. In 2005 I thought it would be a good idea to take a drawing course at the University of Manitoba School of Art. And I loved it! So the next year, I took a huge risk and quit my job to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

During my years at the U of Manitoba, I did editorial cartoons for the school paper and specialized in clunky, but funny cut-out animations. After graduating with a double major in Drawing and Video, I was accepted into the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Ottawa. Since my wife was working as a civil servant with Canada's Federal Government, we were able to move across the country.

The MFA was a struggle for me because I don't see myself as an 'academic artist.' I truly believe that art can be fun and entertaining and still engage with big ideas. That's not to say it wasn't  rewarding. During the program I created a "musical/comedy/performance art" alter ego named Stan Dickie, as well as a concept–a sort of art movement of one called Stupidism that you can read about here.

I never got up the nerve to do Stand-Up Comedy, or any acting, but with Stan I brought those ambitions together. With my musical ability, my new found songwriting ability and cut-out animation I created a character that satirized men. The 'Stan project' is ongoing and I have expanded the scope of the character to satirize whatever the hell I want.

A couple of years after I finished my MFA I started painting in oil. Somehow I always knew I'd end up being a painter and quickly realized it was the perfect fit for me. The first painting series I created was a series of strange things happening on the moon, loosely based on Stan Dickie's (okay, it's mine really) The Moon Song. I then did a series of Human/Animal Hybrids or chimeras. Both of these series were well received when shown publicly, but they did not become my obsession.

That happened one day when I was thinking about one of my favourite art exhibitions that I ever attended, the George Condo retrospective Mental States at the New Museum in New York. In 2018 I started to think about what I could do with a Condo inspired (but not copied) aesthetic. At that time I was moving in a kind of Neo-Pop Art direction using pop culture imagery as a starting point. I wasn't particularly happy with everything I was doing at the time, so I thought: "what would happen if I painted characters from pop-culture in a Condo/Picasso (Condo is heavily influenced by Picasso) influenced style? So I did one. And then I did another and I haven't been able to stop. Thus Cubo-Weirdism was born! So please peruse my website, sign up for my email newsletter, or just say "hi."

CV:

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2026 June – Hinterland WTF?, 226 Main Street Gallery, Winnipeg, MB
2025 April – Hinterland WTF?, Prairie Fusion, Portage La Prairie, MB
2017 April – June – Menagerie, X-Cues, Winnipeg, MB
2014 August – September – Face Dances, The Kitchen Window Gallery, London, UK
2012 August – Stan Dickie: Real Man, or Just Some Feller, Blink Gallery, Ottawa, ON
2012 January – February – Manimations, Ottawa School of Art Gallery, Shenkman
Art Centre, Ottawa, ON
2011 September – October – Mansongs, Gallery 101, Ottawa, ON

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS, PERFORMANCES AND SCREENINGS

2025 November - December, The Brightest Christmas, Warehouse Artworks, Winnipeg, MB
2024 December, Christmas Camp, 226 Main Street Gallery, Winnipeg, MB
2024 May, Pretty (with the Frost Shield Kerfuffle Collective), 226 Main Street Gallery, Winnipeg, MB
2022 March-May, All Art+ Standouts, A Virtual Showcase, Van Der Plas Gallery, New York, NY, USA.
2022 June-July., The Frost Shield Kerfuffle Collective: Damaged Landscapes, Glesby Portage & District Arts Centre, Portage La Prairie, MB
2020 Aug., Under the Mask: A Metamorphosis, Van Der Plas Gallery, New York, NY, USA.
2020 Aug-October., Relics of the Past, Orca’s Pod Gallery, Gibsons, BC
2019 Aug., The Frost Shield Kerfuffle Collective: Revolting, The Edge Gallery, Winnipeg, MB
2018 Jan., The Frost Shield Kerfuffle Collective: The only thing we have in common is that some of us are nice, The Cre8ery, Winnipeg, MB
2016 Performance as Stan Dickie, The Box Gallery, Winnipeg, MB
2016 Performance as Stan Dickie, The Montague Arms, London, UK
2014 September, Nunhead Open, London, UK
2014 September, Performance at Frost Bitten Mosquito Slapping Trolley Tippers, Curated by Diana Thorneycroft and Michael Boss, Almonte, ON
2014 May, Espejo Negro, La Compañia, Mexico City, Mexico
2013 October, Espejo Negro, Free Form Film Festival, Salt Lake City Utah, USA
2013 October, Espejo Negro, the Projection Museum, Portland, Oregon, USA
2013 September, Hegelian Landscape (with Strangeloops Collective), Nuit Blanche, Ottawa
2013 August Espejo Negro, Les Territoires, Montreal, QC
2012 Performance as Stan Dickie (January 15), Ottawa School of Art Gallery, Shenkman Art Centre, Ottawa
2010 May, Lens Be Friends, Platform Gallery, Winnipeg, MB
2010 April, 2010 University of Manitoba Graduate Exhibition, Gallery 111, Winnipeg, MB
2009 July, A Compact for Convenience, Cre8ery, Winnipeg, MB
2009 April, Firewire, Cinemathèque, Winnipeg, MB
2009 March, Sweet Nothings, Outworks Gallery, Winnipeg, MB
2008 October, The Winnipeg Animation Festival, Curated by Dave Barber, Winnipeg, MB

RESIDENCIES

2015 July Luminous Bodies, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto, ON
2013 April – August Creation Workshop, Les Territoires, Montreal, QC

EDUCATION

MFA, University of Ottawa, October 2012
BFA (First Class Honours), University of Manitoba, June 2010
BA, University of Manitoba, June 1988

SELECTED GRANTS SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS

2019 Winnipeg Arts Council Professional Development Grant
2014 Canada Council for the Arts Travel Grant for Visual Artists
2012 University of Ottawa Faculty of Graduate Studies Dean’s Scholarship
2010 University of Ottawa Graduate Admission Scholarship
2010 Lynn Sissons Memorial Scholarship for Best Watercolour