Quiet Storm, (2024)
About the work
Created for Manuela, Lorna Simpson’s ‘Quiet Storm’ (2024) is a site-specific wallpaper based on the artist’s ink and screenprint painting of the same name. A continuation of Simpson’s ongoing large-scale painting series, ‘Quiet Storm’ takes found imagery as its starting point. Beginning with a appropriated imagery from vintage Jet and Ebony magazines, Simpson superimposes and reconfigures the female face to reveal everyday American cultural stereotypes. “For me,” she says, “the images hearken back to my childhood… [they] are also a lens through which to see the past fifty years in American history”. Once digitally enlarged and screenprinted, the image is transferred onto a gessoed fiberglass board, at which point it is painted over with washes of ink. The result is something metonymic and surreal: “working with ink is very much about being in the moment, and as a result there’s a degree of subconsciousness that comes through”. Further symbolism is imbued by Simpson’s choice of palette, which is dominated by her characteristic selection of deep blues. Ranging from midnight blue to cobalt, navy and lapis, Simpson’s expressive strokes are both luminous and opaque. The resulting photo collage is what she describes as a “very simple exploration of my subconscious over the course of time”.
About The Artist
Lorna Simpson (b.1960, United States) came to prominence in the 1980s with her pioneering approach to conceptual photography. Simpson’s early work––particularly her striking juxtapositions of text and staged images––raised questions about the nature of representation, identity, gender, race, and history that continue to drive the artist’s expanding and multi-disciplinary practice today.
Studying on the West Coast in the mid-1980s, Simpson was part of a generation of artists who utilized conceptual approaches to undermine the credibility and apparent neutrality of language and images. Over the past 30 years, Simpson has continued to probe these questions while expanding her practice to encompass various media including film and video, painting, drawing and sculpture. Layered and multivalent, Simpson’s practice deploys metaphor, metonymy, and formal prowess to offer a potent response to American life.