Lorraine Simms facts for kids

Lorraine Simms (born 1956) is a Canadian artist from Montréal, Canada. She is known for her paintings, drawings, and sculptures.

Life and Work of Lorraine Simms

Lorraine Simms studied art at the Ontario College of Art. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1978. Later, in 1990, she completed her Masters of Fine Arts at Concordia University. She started her professional art career in 1991. Today, Simms lives and works in Montréal. She used to teach art at Dawson College and Concordia University.

Her artworks have been shown in many places. These include art galleries, cultural centers, and museums. You can find her art in Canada and the United States. Some famous places include the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Her art was even featured in a TV show called Shaping Art on Bravo TV.

Lorraine Simms has received many grants for her art. These grants come from important art councils. They include the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts. She also helps other artists. She has organized many art shows for them.

Simms creates art using different methods. She makes paintings, art installations, drawings, and sculptures. Her work often explores themes in a series. She tries to balance what we can see with what is suggested. She also looks at how art changes over time. For the past ten years, Simms has focused on animal forms. She uses plush toys, taxidermy (stuffed animals), and bones in her art.

Exploring Notable Art Series

Shadowland: Drawings of Animal Bones (2018–Present)

In her Shadowland series, Lorraine Simms creates large drawings. She uses the bones and skins of animals. These animals are often considered vulnerable or endangered. Simms researched these drawings at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. She visited there twice, in 2018 and 2019.

These drawings show the detailed shadows cast by animal skulls and bones. They invite viewers to think about animals in a deeper way. They also make us consider our shared history and future with animals. One art critic said that in these drawings, "harvested shadows make the dead animals that cast them live again."

Works from Shadowland have been shown in several exhibitions. These include the Canadian Museum of Nature (2021). They were also displayed at the Illingworth Kerr Gallery in Calgary (2022). Other venues include the Beaty Biodiversity Museum (2019) and McBride Contemporary in Montreal (2019).

Plush: Art with Stuffed Animals (2010–2018)

From 2010 to 2018, Simms worked with plush toys. She created three different painting series and several sculptures. These artworks explore how plush toys can make reality seem too perfect or fake. This idea is sometimes called "Disneyfication."

An art writer, René Viau, described her Plush works. He noted that even though they relate to consumerism, they are also part of art history. He praised her skill in showing the texture of fake fur. He also highlighted her focus on the overall look and paint style.

Spectral and The Interview (2010)

In 2010, Simms created many small paintings on paper. These works explored two different subjects. One was close-ups of plush toys. The other was details of Michael Jackson's face.

These paintings were first shown in her solo exhibition called Spectral. Along with this show, Simms published a book. It was titled The Interview. The book featured a fictional interview with Michael Jackson. It also included digital images and some paintings from the Spectral series.