2017 Catalogue Archive

In his art practice, Gary Simmons smears and blurs images from American popular culture to alter the symbolism and comment on issues of race and class in the US. This work uses fly-posters, homemade, inexpensive posters used to advertise local bands that covered the urban landscape during the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Simmons distorts and layers this found imagery from punk and hip-hop groups, replicating the temporal nature of posters that have been torn, covered, and smeared by the elements and passersby. The blurred composition connects to his most well-known body of work, the Erasure Drawings, where he smudges chalk drawings with his hands and forearms. Simmons’ work is represented in numerous collections including the Dallas Cowboys Art Collection where his wall drawing Blue Field Explosions is installed at AT&T Stadium.