Gary Simmons
7 November – 19 December 2003
Opening reception: Friday, 7 November , 6-8 pm
Anthony Meier Fine Arts is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new work
by Gary Simmons. Using icons and stereotypes of American pop culture, Simmons
creates haunting, memorable works that address personal and collective
experiences of race and class. Simmons has been exhibiting internationally for
fifteen years, including the 1993 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial and most
recently a comprehensive mid-career survey on display at The MCA Chicago, SITE
Santa Fe and the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Simmons’ exhibition at Anthony Meier Fine Arts centers on the ongoing
political debate over the separation between church and state. Employing text and
imagery of Southern Baptist churches and state buildings, the exhibition consists
of three paintings, four exploded drawings -- one large visual created
through the combination of numerous individual, partial images -- and a
site-specific wall work. The exploded drawing in many ways mirrors the topic of Simmons
exhibition: there is strength in numbers, a combined force of many that an
individual lacks. All of the pieces employ Simmons signature erasure technique.
In his erasure works, Simmons creates drawings and then smudges the image
with his hands, rendering it a ghostly reference of its former self; a reference
laden with movement, memory, and the passage of time. The smudging questions
what is seen and what is not. It asks the viewer to differentiate between the
scrim of personal experience through which one often sees the world and the
true image on the wall. This objectivity is the cornerstone of Simmons’ church
and state exhibition.
The push and pull of the erased lines blurs not only the image but also the
border between two and three-dimensional work. There is a performance-based
aspect to these pieces; the physical act of moving the chalk, the charcoal, the
paint, leaves a ghost of the artist on the surface and creates a seamless
fluidity of form.
Gallery hours: Tues-Fri 11-5
