SIMMONS, Gary; MORALES, René (ed.); COLLINGWOOD, Jadine (ed.)
Gary Simmons: Public Enemy

Covering 30 years of sculptures, paintings, works on paper, large-scale wall drawings, installations and site-specific works, this book presents the art of Gary Simmons, who has, since the late 1980s, played a key role in situating questions of race, class and gender identity within art discourse. He is notable for combining pop-cultural imagery with conceptual artistic strategies to expose and analyze histories of racism inscribed in US visual culture. Over the course of his career, Simmons has revealed traces of these histories in the fields of sports, cinema, literature, music, and architecture and urbanism while drawing on popular genres such as hip-hop, horror and science fiction. His approach is cool and unflinching in its interrogation of historical and cultural narratives, yet the results consistently deliver a strong emotional charge.

This publication offers readers the opportunity to gain a holistic understanding of the complex, profoundly moving work of this influential artist: it comprises a foreword by interviews with Thelma Golden, Arthur Jafa, Gary Simmons, as well as essays by Nick Mirzoeff, Seph Rodney, Franklin Sirmans, and Jack Schneider. [publishers’ note]

Published by Delmonico Books, 2023
Monographs