Gary Simmons (artist) facts for kids

Gary Simmons (born April 14, 1964) is an American artist from New York City. He creates art that explores ideas about race and social groups in America. He uses well-known symbols and images from American popular culture.

Simmons is famous for his "erasure drawings." In these works, he draws with white chalk or oil paint on dark surfaces. Then, he smudges the drawings with his hands. This makes the images look blurry and dreamlike, almost like ghosts.

Gary Simmons: An Artist's Journey

Early Art and Education

Chalkboard Drawing #3 (1992) at the Rubell Museum DC in 2022

Gary Simmons studied art at the School of Visual Arts, earning his first degree in 1988. He then went on to get his master's degree from CalArts in 1990. Soon after, he received important grants to help him continue his art.

When he returned to New York, Simmons found a studio in an old school building. He started using the old classroom chalkboards as his canvases. He was interested in how chalk drawings could be easily changed or erased. In the 1990s, he often used chalk on boards or walls painted like chalkboards.

In these early works, he sometimes used images from old cartoons. These cartoons often showed unfair or stereotypical pictures of Black people. For example, in a large wall drawing called Wall of Eyes (1993), he covered a black surface with many cartoon eyes of different sizes.

The Erasure Series

Gary Simmons, Haze Fade, 2005, Oil on canvas

Simmons's most famous artworks are his Erasure series. He creates these by drawing with white chalk on dark panels or with oil paint on dark canvases. Then, he smudges the white parts with his hands. This makes the images look faded and ghostly. He began this series in the 1990s and still creates similar wall paintings today.

The idea of using chalkboards reminds us of teaching and learning. Simmons uses this idea to show how history can be rewritten or seen differently. He draws old cartoon characters that were once used to create stereotypes. By erasing parts of them, he makes them look like hazy memories. This erasing is a way of making new marks. It creates a flowing movement that is different from the sharp lines of the original drawing. Simmons brings up difficult parts of America's past, but he also wants them to be remembered.

In 2014, Simmons had a large exhibition at Metro Pictures Gallery. It featured paintings and drawings that showed blurry, dark images from 1970s horror films.

Sculptures and Installations

Ghoster (1997)

Gary Simmons considers himself mainly a sculptor. His early three-dimensional artworks used powerful symbols of unfair treatment. For example, one work from 1992 showed chairs in a circle with white pointed hoods on them. Another sculpture from 1992 featured two brick pillars with stone figures on top, guarding a large iron gate. These works made people think about difficult parts of history.

In a later work called Big Still (2001), Simmons explored the lives of poor white people in the Appalachian region. He built a large model of a machine used to make illegal alcohol during the Prohibition era. This sculpture was big and powerful, showing the challenges faced by these communities.

In 2014, the Pérez Art Museum Miami asked Simmons to create a special artwork for their gallery. He made a huge indoor mural that was 30 feet tall and 29 feet wide.

Gary Simmons: Public Enemy Exhibition

A major exhibition called Gary Simmons: Public Enemy opened on June 10, 2023, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. This show is the most complete look at Simmons's career so far. It covers thirty years of his work and includes about seventy pieces. The exhibition explores the history of racism through different kinds of American art and images.

Where to See His Art

Gary Simmons's paintings, drawings, and sculptures have been shown in many places. You can find his art in museums across the United States and around the world. Some of these include the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. His works are also part of private collections.

Art Market and Representation

Since 2021, Gary Simmons has been represented by Hauser & Wirth, a well-known art gallery. Before that, he worked with other galleries like Metro Pictures Gallery in New York and Simon Lee Gallery in London.