O.M. Comstock

O.M. Comstock is currently a PhD Candidate working a dissertation titled "Allen Fannin: Hand Spinning and Weaving, Nitty-Gritty Needs, and ‘The Black Craftsman Situation.’” This dissertation provides the first book-length study of Allen Fannin (1939–2004), a studio craft practitioner known for his spinning and weaving in the 1960s–70s. Each chapter examines a different facet of Fannin’s practice: texture, how-to manuals, commercial production, and pedagogy.

Their scholarly work has been supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and the American Council for Learned Societies, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, among others. At the University of Minnesota, their work has been supported by the Center for Premodern Studies and the Center for German and European Studies. Their writing has appeared in Source: Notes in Art History, The Journal of Black Mountain College Studies, and the US Latinx Art Forum. They have presented their research at the College Art Association, the American Studies Association, the Craft History Workshop, and the Caribbean Philosophical Association. During the 2025-2026 academic year, O.M. is in residence at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as the Predoctoral Fellow in American Craft and Big Ten Academic Alliance Fellow.

O.M. Comstock served as independent curator for Edible at the Northern Clay Center in 2024, an exhibition that explored Asian American cultural identity through ceramics that incorporate food aesthetics. In 2020, they were co-curator for ¡PRESENTE! at CLUES, which featured the work of Twin Cities Latina/o/x artists in celebration of 50 years of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of Minnesota. O.M. Comstock was also the recipient of a 2021-2022 Fulbright Research Award in Berlin, Germany where they staged participatory workshops at the Museum FLUXUS+.