Simone Osthoff

Simone Osthoff is a Brazilian-born artist and writer based in the U.S. since 1988. She received a B.A. in History from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica of Rio de Janeiro, an MFA in Printmaking and Drawing from the University of Maryland, a M.A. degree in Art History, Theory and Criticism from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Media and Communications from the European Graduate School. Prior to coming to PSU in 2001, she taught at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, DePaul University, and the University of Maryland.

Osthoff’s prints, drawings, and collaborative installations have been exhibited in multiple solo and group shows nationally and internationally including print biennials in China and Cuba. In the U.S. she has exhibited in among others the Chicago Cultural Center and the Aldo Castillo Gallery, Chicago (which represented her work between 1996-2001). In Brazil her work has been showcased in among others the Museum of Contemporary Art of Paraná, Curitiba, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of São Paulo. Among museum collections, her work is included in the Museu da Gravura Cidade de Curitiba and the Museu Nacional de Bellas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, besides multiple private and corporate collections in England, Brazil, and the United States.

Beginning in 1996, her research has explored the intersections of history and theory of media art, postcolonial studies, and Latin American/Brazilian art and culture. Her essays have been published in journals such as Leonardo, New Art Examiner, Art Journal, and Flusser Studies and have thus far been translated into eight languages. Examples of book chapters include Ecosee: Image, Rhetoric, and Nature, edited by Sid Dobrin and Sean Morey (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2009); At a Distance: Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet, edited by Annmarie Chandler and Norie Neumark (MIT Press, 2005); and Diaspora and Visual Culture, edited by N. Mirzoeff (London: Routledge, 2000). She is the author of Performing the archive: The transformation of the archive in contemporary art from repository of documents to art medium (Atropos Press, 2009), and is current working on a book about the The Suplemento Dominical do Jornal do Brasil and the connections between painting, poetry, design and media in Rio de Janeiro, between 1956-1961. She has been a critic for Leonardo Reviews since 2000 and was an invited editor of Flusser Studies in 2009. Osthoff has lectured widely, organized panels, and participated in dozens of events and symposia in the U.S. and abroad. Among her grants and awards is a Fulbright Fellowship in 2003.