Simonette Quamina was born in Ontario, Canada in 1982 and spent her early childhood living between South America, the Caribbean and New York City. Her diverse upbringing is constantly woven into the narratives of her large-scale multimedia pieces. She earned her BA from the City College of New York, and an MFA from RISD, where concentrated in Theory and History in Art and Design classes. She also studied at Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art in Pont-Aven, France and received a Collegiate Teaching Certificate through the collaboration of Brown University’s Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning and RISD. She is the recipient of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Studio Program in New York City, the 2017–18 Provincetown Fine Arts Works Center Residency and the 2017 Salem Art Works Fellowship, and she was a nominee for the prestigious 2020 Queen Sonja Print Award.

Her work has been shown both nationally and internationally. She was a solo featured artist at Frieze London 2023, has a forthcoming solo show at Armory 2024 and a solo show at Praxis Gallery scheduled for 2025. Her work has been acquired for private and public collections including the Perez Museum, RISD Fleet Library and the North Dakota Museum of Art. Past group exhibitions include Estamos Bien – LA TRIENAL 20/21 at El Museo del Barrio in New York City, Mirror Inflection at the Shanghai Hongqiao Contemporary Art Museum in China and Artists I Steal From at Gallerie Thaddaeus Ropac in London. Solo exhibitions include Canboulay at Smack Mellon in New York City and The Night Gardener at Pace University Gallery.

Simonette maintains an active studio in New York City and in Rhode Island and is an associate professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She has taught studio courses at a range of private and public institutions including Brown University, Eastern Connecticut State University and Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts and is dedicated to advancing studio pedagogy in higher education environments.