Lorna Simpson

Lorna Simpson (born August 13, 1960) is an American photographer and multimedia artist whose works have been exhibited both nationally and internationally. In 1990, she became the first African-American woman to exhibit at the Venice Biennale. She came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s with photo-text installations such as Guarded Conditions and Square Deal that questioned the nature of identity, gender, race, history and representation. Simpson continues to explore these themes in relation to memory and history using photography, film, video, painting, drawing, audio, and sculpture. Early life Lorna Simpson was born on August 13, 1960, and grew up in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Her parents, a Jamaican-Cuban father and African-American mother, took her to numerous plays, museums, concerts and dance performances as a child. Simpson attended the High School of Art and Design and took courses at the Art Institute of Chicago in summer while visiting her grandmother. Education Prior to receiving her BFA, Simpson traveled Europe, Africa, and the United States further developing her skills through documentary photography. Simpson attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting in 1982. During that time, she interned at the Studio Museum in Harlem, acquainting herself with the practice of artist in residence David Hammons. Simpson earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California at San Diego in 1985. Her focus was between Photography and Conceptual art, and her teachers included Allan Kaprow, Eleanor Antin, filmmakers Babette Mangolte, Jean-Pierre Gorin and poet David Antin. Here she developed her signature style of combining text with studio-like portraiture, while questioning if documentary photography was factual or served as a constructed truth generated by photographer themselves. These works analyzed stereotypical narratives of African-American women within American culture.