Gary Simmons

2008
Oil and pigment on gessoed paper
111.8 x 76.2 cm / 44 x 30 in
119 x 83 cm / 46 7/8 x 32 5/8 in (framed)

Gary Simmons uses icons and stereotypes of American popular culture to create works that address personal and collective experiences of race and class. Simmons’ use of pedagogical motifs led to the formal and aesthetic breakthrough that would inform much of his subsequent work, in which erasure of the image has been a powerful and recurring theme. In further key commissions, Simmons has expanded beyond the confines of museum and gallery walls, creating performative and site-specific works.