Neil Harrison Daigle Orians, MFA

Neil Daigle Orians (they/he) is an artist, writerr, and educator. 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 were the Visual Arts Manager at Real Art Ways in Hartford where they organized more than 40 exhibitions and 2 public art projects. They have taught courses on art, culture, and theory at the University of Connecticut, Quinnipiac University, and the University of Hartford, as well as non-classroom workshops and courses. Their work and performances have been exhibited at national and international venues, including: International Print Center New York (New York, NY); Radiator Arts (Queens, NY); Salisbury University Galleries (Salisbury, MD); Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (Gimpo, Korea); University of Nebraska-Omaha (Omaha, NE); and Artists Image Resource (Pittsburgh, PA). 

Bachelors of Fine Arts: University of Nebraska Lincoln, NE, 2012 (Studio Art)

Masters of Fine Arts: University of Connecticut Storrs, CT, 2016 (Studio Art)

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.

07-2016 -08-2021 Visual Arts Manager, Managed and curated exhibitions, public programs, and events related to contemporary visual arts programs. , Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT

08-15-2022 - Assistant Professor and Area Head of Printmaking, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

01-2018 -05-2022 Adjunct Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Developed and taught WGSS1104: Feminisms in the Arts for one UConn's regional campuses, University of Connecticut, Hartford, CT

08-2021 -05-2022 Adjunct Professor: FYS and WGS, Developed and taught First Year Seminar: Queerness, Memoir, and Creativity and Special Topics in WGS: Gender and Sexuality in the Arts, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT

01-2022 -05-2022 Adjunct Professor of Art, Art History II -- Asynchronous online, Capital Community College, Hartford, CT

08-2025 - Assistant Professor, Fine Arts Foundations Coordinator, Area Head of Printmaking, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

Invited Presentations

(10-23-2025. ) There’s a Monster in the Archives .SECAC, Conference. . Level:National

(02-19-2026. ) Performing Academia: An Attempt at Legitimizing my Practice .CAA. Conference. . Level:National

(04-10-2025. ) The Haunting of Materiality .Foundations in Art: Theory and Education. Level:National

(10-03-2024. ) Print is Undead .Mid-America Print Council. Conference. . Level:National

(04-18-2024. ) What are you haunted by? .Miami University, Oxford, OH. Other Institution. . Level:University

Symposium

Neil Daigle Orians (04-14-2023. ) 3rd Global Arts Symposium: Global Arts in the Digital Age .Ohio University. Other Institution. Level:International

10-13-2022 -10-16-2022 DAAP Faculty Development Award Supported travel to and attendance of the Mid-America Print Council's biennial conference hosted by Kent State University. DAAP Status:Recipient

08-2026 -05-2028 Niehoff Center for Film and Media Studies Faculty Fellow Type:Fellowship

08-2023 -05-2024 Patricia A. Renick Faculty Fellow Level:College Type:Fellowship

Queerness, print, print media, transmedia, photography, performance, installation, horror, hauntology, archives, counter-narrative history, epistolary, ergodic literature, visual narrative, illustration

08-2022: Mid-America Print Council (member)

08-2023: Southern Graphics Council International (Member)

08-2024: Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (member)

08-2025: SECAC (member)

08-2025: CAA (member)

10-13-2022 -10-16-2022 MAPC 2022: Power of Print Mid-America Print Council Kent, OH Type:Conference Attendance