Family Style: Reginald O’Neal + Arsimmer McCoy

Reginald O’Neal (L.E.O.) (Miami, Florida 1992) began painting in 2012, soon meeting his friend and mentor, Alejandro Dorda, who would teach him classically. In 2014, L.E.O. took his first trip to Europe to complete murals in Austria, Norway, and Spain, as well as exhibit in a collective show alongside his teacher in Berlin, Germany. In the years since, Reggie has focused on canvas work, residencies, and murals that embody his community surroundings, experiences and beliefs.

Arsimmer McCoy (Richmond Heights, Fl. ) moves in the world as an educator, cultural worker, performance & collaborative artist. McCoy holds a BA in english with a minor in Theater performance from Florida Memorial University. Arsimmer works as the Director of Programming for Bookleggers; a nonprofit mobile library that expands access to free books as a way of building community. Arsimmer has been a teaching artist for 5+ years, working alongside veteran educators in public schools, through organizations such as Scrap paper Inc, O,Miami Sunroom Poetry, Honeyshine Camp, Urgent Inc., and Miami Dade public library. McCoy also facilitates creative writing workshops, the most recent “Make a Masterpiece of Me|Using Poetry to empower people, places, and things”, doubles as a fundamental course on the intricacies of poetry incorporating conversations on culture, personal experiences, & activism. Arsimmer hosts an open Mic forum in partnership with the collective Poetry for the People. McCoy is also a summer cohort artist resident at Bakehouse Art Complex, the recipient of the 2021 Miami Foundation racial equity grant and Locust Project’s 2021 Wavemaker grant recipient.