Gary Simmons

One of the foremost artists of a generation that emerged during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gary Simmons has achieved wide acclaim over the past three decades for his work, which explores the politics of race, class, and social stereotypes through painting, sculpture, sound, and architectural environments. Simmons uses imagery drawn from popular culture to create works that address personal and collective memories. Born in New York in 1964, Simmons received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1988 and his MFA from CalArts in 1990, studying under the tutelage of Charles Gaines, Michael Asher, Catherine Lord, and others.

Simmons has been the subject of solo exhibitions both nationally and internationally, including at the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; the California African American Museum, Los Angeles; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; and Kunsthaus Zürich. Selected group exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, among others.

Simmons was featured in Thelma Golden’s landmark 1994 ‘Black Male’ exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Franklin Sirmans’ 2014 Prospect Triennial in New Orleans, and Okwui Enwezor’s ‘All the World’s Futures’ for the 2015 Venice Biennale. In 2021, Simmons was appointed a National Academician by the National Academy of Design. He is the recipient of the Joyce Alexander Wein Prize, Studio Museum of Harlem; USA Gund Fellowship; Penny McCall Foundation Grant; InterArts Grant; National Endowment for the Arts; and the Aspen Award for Art. The first comprehensive institutional survey of Simmons’ work, ‘Gary Simmons: Public Enemy,’ was on view at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 2023 and traveled to Pérez Art Museum Miami from 2023–2024.