<p>‘My hope is to put work out there that ignites a healthy intellectual back-and-forth,’ the artist says ahead of his survey at Pérez Art Museum Miami</p>

Jenny Wu

Gary Simmons and the art of unearthing ugly American truths

<p>The art of <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8249/Gary-Simmons" target="_blank">Gary Simmons</a> is an American history lesson. Through paintings, wall drawings, and installations, the artist resurfaces racially charged events from the nation’s past and depicts them in frenetic, blurry sketches that call to mind a chalkboard that a hand has deliberately smudged.<br></p>
<p>‘Simmons’s work is incisive about how children learn societal norms, facts, and fictions through formal education systems,’ says Franklin Sirmans, director of Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), where ‘Gary Simmons: Public Enemy’, the artist’s career survey, will open on December 5, following a presentation at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.</p>
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<p>History, the show reminds us, is a flawed curriculum. The artist’s signature blur – translucent traces that mark everything from his meticulously rendered text to his cartoon animals – alludes to ongoing attempts at historical erasure, from whose amnesia collective memories emerge, from time to time, like restless ghosts.<br></p>
<p>Simmons was born to Caribbean immigrants in 1964 in Queens, New York. After studying at New York’s School of Visual Arts and California’s CalArts under the tutelage of luminaries such as <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/16966/Jackie-Winsor" target="_blank">Jackie Winsor</a> and <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7502/John-Baldessari" target="_blank">John Baldessari</a>, Simmons gained recognition in 1992 with a solo show at the Whitney and has since exhibited internationally in venues ranging from INSITE to the Venice Biennale. His life has intersected with historical events, such as the Watts Uprising in Los Angeles just a year after his birth, which he commemorates in his red, flame-licked painting <em>Hollywood</em> (2008).</p>
<p>Similarly, Simmons pays homage to the 1990 release of the hip-hop group Public Enemy’s hit single ‘Fight the Power’ with the crosshairs on his 2.44-meter square canvas, <em>Scope</em> (1993), and alludes to the 2020 murder of George Floyd in the noosed figure depicted in the wall drawing <em>Lynch Frog</em> (2022).</p>
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<p>The works above are just a handful of the many Simmons made between 1989 and 2023, around 70 of which will be presented at PAMM. Seeing his works assembled, Simmons says, has been ‘a roller coaster of emotions’. ‘They’re almost like your kids,’ he adds.</p>
<p>Today, Simmons’s oeuvre is uniquely positioned to help Americans think through recent controversies, such as what to do with statues of contentious historical figures, the spread of disinformation online, and how race is discussed in schools. A show like ‘Public Enemy’ throws a blacklight on the social conditions of its surroundings, and the political climate in Florida has not escaped Simmons’s scrutiny.</p>

<p>‘The state is dealing with challenging issues,’ Simmons says, noting the recent book bans by Governor Ron DeSantis. ‘My hope is to put work out there that starts a conversation and ignites a healthy intellectual back-and-forth.’</p>
<p>PAMM’s director echoes this sentiment. ‘Miami has a history of covering up the past architecturally, constantly making way for the new,’ Sirmans says. The time is ripe for Simmons’s art to help viewers slow down, peel back these layers and see what may have been forgotten.</p>

<p>To tackle issues like racial inequality, it is sometimes necessary to look back as far as childhood. For instance, in multiple artworks, Simmons revisits the cartoon crows from Disney’s <em>Dumbo</em> (1941), which are racist caricatures of Black people from the 1940s and 1950s. In what was ostensibly a children’s film, these crows became a litmus test for those who saw them: Depending on who you were, you either felt disturbed or forgot they existed.<br></p>
<p>Discrepancies in memory and perception exist in sports as well. Accordingly, Simmons’s art often references boxing and dance. In the installation <em>Step into the Arena (The Essentialist Trap)</em> (1994), he underscores the double-edged association between Black individuals and these activities. The installation is a boxing ring, and on the ring’s floor is a blurred screen print depicting instructions for the cakewalk. This comic dance likely originated on American plantations as a form of satire aimed at slaveholders and was later appropriated into racist minstrel shows.<br> </p>



<p>Simmons’s work emphasizes the way cultural traditions can both liberate and oppress. His signature traces literalize the destructive powers of attempted erasure – of Black Americans’ contributions and pain. Racial inequality rears its head today more frequently than we’d like to admit. ‘It’s alarming that behaviors and crimes that occurred 40 years ago are still front and center on a daily basis,’ the artist says.</p>
<p>But Simmons hasn’t lost hope. ‘Do we throw in the towel?’ he says. ‘No, I don’t think so.’ The urgency of his subject matter motivates him to keep igniting conversation and to carry forward the lessons of the past.</p>
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<p>Gary Simmons is represented by <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1153/Hauser-Wirth" target="_blank">Hauser & Wirth</a>. ‘Gary Simmons: Public Enemy’ will be on view at the Pérez Art Museum Miami from December 5, 2023 – April 28, 2024.</p>
<p>This article was originally published in the<em> Art Basel Miami Beach</em> magazine 2023.</p>
<p>Published November 8, 2023.</p>
<p>Captions for full-bleed images, from top to bottom: 1. Installation view of&nbsp;Gary Simmons,&nbsp;<em>Reflection of a Future Past</em>, 2006 (detail), in 'Gary Simmons:&nbsp;Public Enemy', MCA Chicago, 2023. Photograph by Shelby Ragsdale. Artwork © Gary Simmons. Photograph © MCA Chicago. 2. Gary Simmons, <em>Disinformation Supremacy Board</em>, 1989 (detail). Photograph by Keith Lubow. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth. © Gary Simmons.</p>

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