Lorna Simpson (b. 1960) is an American artist who works in a wide range of media, including photography, installation, sculpture, video, film, and drawing. She gained notoreity in the mid-1980s with works that confronted and challenged conventional views of gender, identity, culture, history, and memory. Simpson was the first African-American woman to exhibit at the Venice Biennale in 1990.
Simpson’s ongoing questioning of memory and representation through her work not only speaks for black female figures, but for all those who have been oppressed, marginalized, and silenced. Even after more than three decades, her shrewd observations and critiques about our culture resonate deeply at this moment.
Image 1: “Easy for Who to Say” 1989
Image 2: “Untitled (A lie is not a shelter)” 1989
Image 3: “Untitled (A lie is not a shelter)” For Art Against AIDS in San Francisco
You can download the teaching material from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s website.
Lorna Simpson Author / Creator: Jones, Kellie London ; New York : Phaidon, c2002. English HOLLIS number: 990091560860203941
