Arthur Simms
Arthur Simms (b. 1961, Saint Andrew, Jamaica) is an artist based in Staten Island, New York, whose human-scale assemblage sculptures radiate with poeticism and spirituality. Simms’s sculptures are sourced from found and natural materials, and are often bound with rope or wire. Likewise, his work binds together traditions and modern art historical trajectories: Surrealism’s uses of automatism and disjunction, as well as its reliance on the unconscious, are merged with the folk cultures of Jamaica, America, and Haiti, in addition to Australian Aboriginal belief systems. The resulting entanglements, constructed from materials such as bedsprings, empty bottles, bicycles, and worn-out toys, resonate with narratives of belonging, playfulness, and psychic energy. Simms’s sculpture, rather than feeling like an intervention in space, seems to appear spontaneously, as if by magic, like a creation preordained.
Simms’s work was included in the Kingston Biennial in 2022, the Venice Biennale in 2019, and the inaugural Jamaica Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2001. Simms’s site-specific installations include a floating sculpture displayed on Staten Island’s waterfront in 2018 and a large-scale work in Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, New York in 1994. His work is held in the collections of the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC; Museum Brandhorst, Germany; Neuberger Museum of Art, Harrison, New York; and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, among others.
Simms’s exhibition Chair With My Hair, Works by Arthur Simms is currently on view at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen Switzerland, through July 7, 2024.
Arthur Simms in his studio. Photo by Charles Benton
Born 1961, Saint Andrew, Jamaica
Lives and works in New York
EDUCATION
1993
MFA, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY
1987
BA, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY
SELECTED SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2024
Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland, Chair With My Hair, Works by Arthur Simms
2023
Karma, Los Angeles, The Miracle of Burano
San Carlo Cremona, Italy, I Am The Bush Doctor, One Halo
2022
Martos After Dark, New York, Night Fever, One Halo
Martos Gallery, New York, And I Say, Brother Had A Very Good Day, One Halo
2019
Shoot The Lobster NY Gallery, New York, Throughline
Slag Gallery, New York, The Big Picture, One Halo, Sculptures and Drawings by Arthur Simms
2016
Dorsky Gallery, New York, Different Roads: Same Destination, Assemblage Sculptures of Randy Wray and Arthur Simms
2014
Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana, Lucy Fradkin and Arthur Simms: Intimate Worlds
2011
Amelie A. Wallace Gallery at SUNY College at Old Westbury, New York, Dreamcatchers: Sculptures by Hyong Nam Ahn and Arthur Simms
2010
Peg Alston Fine Arts, New York, Arthur Simms, Two Thousand and Ten
2009
Clark Gallery, Lincoln, Massachusetts, Arthur Simms
2008
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland, Process Room
2007-2008
Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York, Art in the Parks, Celebrating 40 Years 1967-2007
2007
Lesley Heller Gallery, New York, Arthur Simms Sculpture and Drawings
2006
Westchester Community College Art Gallery, New York, Arthur Simms, Sculptures and Drawings
2005
Five Myles, New York, Arthur Simms, Sculptures and Drawings 1989-2005
2004
Kenise Barnes Fine Arts, Larchmont, New York, Roman Holiday: New Work From A Year Spent In Rome, Lucy Fradkin and Arthur Simm
2003
Lavori Italiani, Italia Inghilterra, Cagliari, Italy, Lucy Fradkin e Arthur Simms
Temple University Gallery, Rome, Italy, Arthur Simms and Jonathan Hynd
2001
Peg Alston Fine Arts, New York, Drawings, Arthur Simms
2000
Sideshow Gallery, New York, Arthur Simms And Garry Nichols
York College Art Gallery, New York, Arthur Simms, Assemblage Of The Spirit
1992
Philippe Briet Gallery, New York, Sculptures
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
The Ranch, Montauk, New York, Drunk vs. Stoned 3
Sculpture Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Nature Doesn’t Know About Us
2022
Thomas Dane Gallery, Napoli, Italy, Mettere Al Mondo
Industry City, New York, Singing in Unison: Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale that Society Has the Capacity to Destroy Part Seven
Sculpture Milwaukee 2022, Milwaukee, WI, Nature Doesn’t Know About Us
Ricco Maresca, New York, Singing in Unision, Part 4
Scully Tomasko Foundation, Singing in Unision, Part 2
Below Grand, New York, Singing in Unision, Part 3
American University, Katzen Arts Center, Washington D.C. Caribbean Transitions
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, 2022 Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts
White Columns, New York, Looking Back / The 12th White Columns Annual, selected by Mary Manning
LA Louver, Venice Beach, California, SeenUNseen
2021
Martos Gallery, New York, Lost & Found
2020
Gallery MC, New York, STILL UTOPIA: ISLANDS
2019
St. George to Stapleton, Staten Island, NY, Sonic Gates New York City’s Sculpture Walk
2018
AC Institute, New York, To Break the Ocean
East Pinetum, Central Park, New York, It’s Happening! Celebrating 50 Years of Public Art in NYC Parks
2016
Field Projects Gallery, New York, Excavations
2015
Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY College, New York, ARS Continuum: Amelie A. Wallce Gallery 1978 to the Present
Junior Projects, NYC, Rock Hound Swap Meet
705 Driggs Avenue, Central Connecticut State University Art Gallery, Connecticut, Working in NYC 27 Artists
2014
Athens School Of Art Gallery, Athens, Greece, The Rule of the Law and the Right to be Human The Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, Recontextualizing the Found
2013
Industry City, New York, Come Together: Surviving Sandy, Year 1
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts
2012
The Firehouse Center, Damariscotta, Maine, Lois Dodd: My Students
Swan Hill Museum of Contemporary Art, Hyogo, Japan, Nozomi Rose with 8 Artists from New York
Fondation Clément, Habitation Le François – Martinique, Global Caribbean, Focus sur la Création Contemporaine Caribéenne
2011
Rockland Center For The Arts, New York, Toy Story
Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, New York, Toward a Philosophy of the Everyday
LC Bates Museum, Hinckley, ME, Drawing From the Collection
Clark Gallery, Lincoln, Massachusetts, Rock / Paper / Scissors
Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, San Juan, Puerto Rico, The Global Caribbean, Focus on the Caribbean Contemporary Landscape
2010
Musée International des Arts Modestes, Sète, France, Global Caraîbes MIAM
2009-2010
The Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance Art Center, Miami, Florida, Global Caribbean
2009
Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, New York, Party At Chris’s House
Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Brattleboro, Vermont, Playing Around
2008
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, Person in the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flanerie
2007-2008
The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art
2006
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, Invitational Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
2005
Brooklyn College Art Gallery at the Brooklyn War Memorial, New York, Alumni Exhibition: Celebrating the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of Brooklyn College
Triangle Arts Association, Brooklyn, New York, Flavor Intensive: 5 Sculptors
2003
Galleria Limiti Inchiusi, Campobasso, Italy, Fuoriluogo 8 – Afritalia
P.S.1 MOMA, Queens, New York, Site/Insight: An Assemblage of Artists, curated by Agnes Gund
American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy, Open Studio Exhibition
2002
Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York, Queens International
Aurora Gallery, New York, On The Tracks: Works By NYC Sculptors
Clark University Gallery Of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, Jamaican Art, In The Fullness Of Time
Islip Art Museum, East Islip, New York, Body Language
Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Ace Gallery, New York, Artist to Artist, A Decade of the Space Program
Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, CUNY, New York, Jamaican Art, In The Fullness Of Time
Skoto Gallery, New York, Group Show
2001-2002
Merry, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2001
Howard University Gallery, Washington D.C., Jamaican Art, In The Fullness Of Time
Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College, New York, Jamaican Art, In The Fullness Of Time
Spaces, Cleveland, Ohio, Drawing on Language
The Karl Drerup Gallery, Plymouth State College, Plymouth, New Hampshire, Jamaican Art; In The Fullness Of Time
2000
3rd International Exhibition Of Sculptures And Installations, Venice, Italy, OPEN 2000
Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, New York, Recess
1999
Rush Arts, New York, New York, Group Show
1998
Henry Street Settlement, New York, Local Color
Sideshow Gallery, New York, Pay Per It
1998-1997
The Work Space, New York, Making It
Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, Minnesota
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, Current Undercurrent: Working in Brooklyn
1997
Gasworks, London, England, New York Drawers
Corner House, Manchester, England, New York Drawers
Two Sculptors Inc., New York, First Annual
Pierogi 2000, New York, Gramercy Art Fair
1996
Silverstein Gallery, New York, The January Show
1995
473 Broadway, New York, New York Soho Biennial
The Unnatural History Museum, New York, Freaks
The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, New York, Open Studios
1994-1995
Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York
1994
K & E Gallery, New York, The Box Show
The Police Building, New York, Raw Materials
Neuberger Museum of Art, New York, Other Visions: Composite
Galerie de L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Lorient, France, Le Temps D’un Dessin
1993
Westbeth Gallery, New York
1992
Metropolis Club, New York, Expodiscus Part 3
Jamaica Arts Center, Jamaica, New York, Workspace ‘92
Philippe Briet Gallery, New York
1991-1992
Philippe Briet Gallery, New York, Domenikos Theotokopoulos: A Dialogue
A/C Project Room, New York, Artworks/Artworkers
1989-1990
OIA Gallery , New York, OIA Salon ‘91
Brand X Gallery, New York, Artwork/Artworkers
AWARDS
2022
Irving Sandler Prize, Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program
2019
New Roots Foundation Residency, Antigua, Guatemala
2018
Campo Garzon Artist in Residence, Garzon, Uruguay
2014
S. J. Weiler Fund Award
Holter Museum, Artist in Residence
2013
Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, Artist in Residence
2008
Irish Museum of Modern Art Residency, Dublin, Ireland
2007
The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award
New York City Arts in the Parks Commission
2006
American Academy of Arts and Letters, Academy Award in Art
2004-05
Creative Capital Foundation Follow-up Support
2003
New York Foundation For The Arts Fellowship In Sculpture
2002-03
Harold M. English/Metropolitan Museum of Art-Jacob H. Lazarus Rome Prize
Fellowship in Visual Arts, American Academy In Rome
2002
Creative Capital Foundation Follow-up Support
Salute to Scholars, The City University Of New York
2001
Creative Capital Foundation Grant
1999-2000
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
2000
The Rockefeller Foundation Residency Fellowship Bellagio, Italy
1997
The Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant
Franconia Sculpture Park Individual Artist Grant
1995
The Wheeler Foundation Fellowship
1994-95
Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Grant
1994
Queens Council on the Arts Grant
1993
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
1985
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Scholarship Grant
1985-84
Shaw Memorial Award for Painting, Brooklyn College
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Aïshti Foundation, Lebanon
Brandhorst Museum, Germany
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.
Neuberger Museum of Art, Harrison, New York
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
PUBLICATIONS
2019
A – Z of Caribbean Art
Robert and Christopher Publishers
304 pages
7.5 x 10 inches
2014
Come Together Surviving Sandy, Year 1
Dedalus Foundation and Skira
296 pages
2007
Infinite Island Contemporary Caribbean Art
Brooklyn Museum in Association With Philip Wilson Publishers
224 pages
9.68 x 11.91 inches
2002
Artists to Artists: A Decade of the Space Program
The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation
2003
Index 2003: Fellows and Residents at the American Academy in Rome
Charta, 2003
167 pages
Fuoriluogo 8 Afritalia
Edizioni Limiti Inchiusi
56 pages
