Hobo 23 :: Gregory Fitzsimmons

Gregory Fitzsimmons is an interdisciplinary artist who maps states of mind, places, and identities based on research into theories of conscience and Buddhist contemplatives practices. He has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, teaches at City Colleges of Chicago and has worked in community/social practice for public and private institutions.

I like to think of my role as an artist as being similar to the role a yogi or a monk might play in an older traditional culture. It’s a practice based in compassion so the sharing of its content and production is a way of- hopefully- teaching or, at least, of giving others a hint towards their own attempts to transcend our 24/7 late-capitalist suffering.

Using art-making as a spiritual practice becomes a means for me to carve out a place outside of what feels like an increasingly disfunctional and compassionless social system and to collaborate with others who also want to transcend the cycling trap of interconnected buying-working-marketing-selling.