Lorna Simpson

(American, born 1960)

Lorna Simpson is an American artist best known for her black-and-white photographs and works on paper—both of which explore the interplay between historical memory, culture, and identity. Often associated with postcolonial and feminist critique, Simpson’s work seeks to explicate the ways in which race and gender shape human interactions, specifically in the United States, through the medium of portraiture. “I do not feel as though issues of identity are exhaustible,” the artist has said. “I feel that my critique of identity, which in the past work may be the most obvious, becomes the foreground or recedes given the structures of the text or the type of narrative that I impose on the work.” In her most famous work Stereo Styles (1988), she explores the way in which identity is externally projected, displaying 10 images of an African American woman in different hairstyles alongside text that reads “Sweet,” “Ageless,” and “Magnetic.” Born in 1960 in Brooklyn, NY, Simpson studied photography at School of Visual Arts in New York and received an MFA from the University of California at San Diego, where she studied under Allan Kaprow and Eleanor Antin. In 1986, she received critical attention for her photographic series Twenty Questions (A Sampler), which evaluated the importance of image in contemporary society. In 2007, she was the subject of the retrospective titled “Lorna Simpson” at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and she first exhibited paintings in 2015. Simpson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She was married to fellow artist James Casebere from 2007 to 2018. Today, her works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Miami Art Museum, among others.

Lorna Simpson Artworks

Lorna Simpson (245 results)
Untitled (set of 4), 1993

Lorna Simpson

Untitled (set of 4), 1993

Sale Date: June 8, 2011

Auction Closed

Nervous conditions (2 works), 1992

Lorna Simpson

Nervous conditions (2 works), 1992

Sale Date: March 10, 2011

Auction Closed

III (Wishbones), 1994

Lorna Simpson

III (Wishbones), 1994

Sale Date: March 6, 2011

Auction Closed

Landscape/body parts III, 1992

Lorna Simpson

Landscape/body parts III, 1992

Sale Date: October 26, 2010

Auction Closed

Cloud (9 works), 2005

Lorna Simpson

Cloud (9 works), 2005

Sale Date: October 8, 2010

Auction Closed

Id (in 2 parts), 1990

Lorna Simpson

Id (in 2 parts), 1990

Sale Date: September 25, 2010

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1995

Lorna Simpson

Untitled, 1995

Sale Date: November 26, 2008

Auction Closed

C-rations, 1991

Lorna Simpson

C-rations, 1991

Sale Date: May 4, 2010

Auction Closed

Untitled,, 1993

Lorna Simpson

Untitled,, 1993

Sale Date: July 13, 2010

Auction Closed

Shoe lover (triptych), 1992

Lorna Simpson

Shoe lover (triptych), 1992

Sale Date: June 21, 2010

Auction Closed

5 candles (5 works), 1993

Lorna Simpson

5 candles (5 works), 1993

Sale Date: June 21, 2010

Auction Closed

He he, she she, he she, he she, she he (5..., 1992

Lorna Simpson

He he, she she, he she, he she, she he (5..., 1992

Sale Date: June 21, 2010

Auction Closed

Counting, 1991

Lorna Simpson

Counting, 1991

Sale Date: May 15, 2010

Auction Closed

Untitled (from In a Dream... portfolio), 1991

Lorna Simpson

Untitled (from In a Dream... portfolio), 1991

Sale Date: May 20, 2010

Auction Closed

Shoe Lover 3 (triptych), 1992

Lorna Simpson

Shoe Lover 3 (triptych), 1992

Sale Date: April 16, 2010

Auction Closed

Sans titre, 1991

Lorna Simpson

Sans titre, 1991

Sale Date: December 6, 2009

Auction Closed

Notations, 2006

Lorna Simpson

Notations, 2006

Sale Date: December 7, 2009

Auction Closed

Coiffure (3 works), 1991

Lorna Simpson

Coiffure (3 works), 1991

Sale Date: November 13, 2009

Auction Closed

15 mouths (set of 15, w/text), 2001–2002

Lorna Simpson

15 mouths (set of 15, w/text), 2001–2002

Sale Date: November 15, 2009

Auction Closed

Corridor-Split, 2003

Lorna Simpson

Corridor-Split, 2003

Sale Date: October 24, 2009

Auction Closed

Corridor-Bulb, 2003

Lorna Simpson

Corridor-Bulb, 2003

Sale Date: October 24, 2009

Auction Closed

Corridor (Day), 2003

Lorna Simpson

Corridor (Day), 2003

Sale Date: November 18, 2008

Auction Closed

Untitled (A lie is not a shelter), 1989

Lorna Simpson

Untitled (A lie is not a shelter), 1989

Sale Date: October 13, 2008

Auction Closed

Untitled (cabin in the sky), 2001

Lorna Simpson

Untitled (cabin in the sky), 2001

Sale Date: September 9, 2008

Auction Closed