About
Neil Daigle Orians (they/he) is an artist, curator, and educator living and working in Cincinnati, Ohio, the native homeland of the Indigenous Algonquian speaking tribes, including the Delaware, Miami, and Shawnee tribes. They received a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and MFA in Studio Art from the University of Connecticut. From 2016-2021, they served as Visual Arts Manager at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT, organizing and curating more than 100 exhibitions, public events, and performances. They have received residencies from the International Print Center of New York, Stove Works (Chattanooga, TN), and The Morgan Conservatory (Cleveland, OH). Recent exhibition venues and project sites include: Radiator Arts (Queens, NY); International Center for Printmaking (New York, NY); Salisbury University (Salisbury, MD); University of Nebraska-Omaha (Omaha, NE); and Alexander Brest Gallery (Jacksonville, FL). They have taught courses on art, culture, and theory at the University of Connecticut, Quinnipiac University, and University of Hartford, as well as workshops for organizations and schools including The Hotchkiss School (Lakeville, CT) and the University of Nebraska-Omaha. They are currently an Assistant Professor and Area Head of Printmaking at the University of Cincinnati.
Statement
My research and creative practice is an exploration of haunting and its many iterations. I am interested in the ways haunting is expressed and explored in culture, ranging from internet horror projects to blockbuster slasher films to folklore and beyond. This exploration has taken the forms of sculptural printmaking, presentations on creepypasta, and the creation of a fictional archive headquartered in my Camp Washington studio.
Recently, I have been exploring the American spiritualist movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries and its residue. Through these aesthetics, I interrogate the politics of the archive — what is deemed worthy of preservation, what is discarded, and why. My interest in expanded forms of printmaking is tied to historic uses of print media as a form of connection. Independent newspapers, especially among the spiritualists, became proto-social media platforms, utilizing the press to connect practitioners and believers across the country and strengthen their political goals. Ideas originating with print and publishing continue to proliferate beyond our “post-print” culture (the term “content creator” comes directly from publishing, i.e. “table of contents”). Similarly, a ghost is a repetition; it is an artifact of the past, come to the present to implicate our futures. Ghosts and the printing press are inextricably linked in this way.
Contact
Instagram: @neilmakesthings
