Gary Simmons

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About Gary Simmons

The work of Gary Simmons is essentially about memory and the way in which we attempt to reconstruct the past. According to the artist, “memory is fragmented and blurred through time”.

The work of Gary Simmons is essentially about memory and the way in which we attempt to reconstruct the past. According to the artist, “memory is fragmented and blurred through time”. Simmons’ work references historical issues of race as well as personal experiences. Central to his practice is the act of erasure. In his erasure drawings, Simmons often draws imagery from American popular culture and often creates works in white chalk on pigmented panels and wall installations which he then erases by smudging the images with his hand. This act of erasing only fragments of the images alludes to the unattainable abolishment of racial and cultural stereotyping from society’s consciousness. Simmons (b. 1964), lives and works in New York City. He graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York, and completed an MFA at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. Simmons’ work has been included in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Studio Museum of Harlem, New York; Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis; the Rubell Family Collection, Miami; the Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.

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