DAVID SIMPSON: SECRET GARDEN January 15 - February 14, 2022
David Simpson
right: image courtesy of Jo Whaley
Turn a corner and you enter a different world: a Secret Garden, where luminous pools shift and move, where flowers grow and glow out of darkness in brilliant bursts of color. This is David Simpson’s latest exhibition for Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Secret Garden. Bringing together a mix of new and older works, of Interference paintings, Light Wells, and Flower paintings from the Vanitas series, the exhibition creates a small, magical oasis in a world of not a little chaos and instability. Tucked around the corner in the gallery, one first sees the Light Wells. These round canvas pieces are set on the floor. As you walk toward them, the white, iridescent “pools” begin to change color, shifting into pale blue and watery violet. Another pale green Light Well shifts, remarkably, to bright purple. It is impossible not to think of the way light plays on pools of water – ever-changing and sparking colors depending on the time of day. On the walls surrounding these “pools” are the Flowers. Three new vertical pieces present a new format for Simpson with this series. These long narrow pieces show cascades of strange, spectral flowers falling through matte black. Nearby are a series of four pieces, showing the same pot of flowers and tracing the process of the ebullient bouquet’s slow decay. Surrounding this “garden” are Interference paintings. These works, using a single “color” of interference paint (specially mixed by Simpson in a closely guarded, almost alchemical process) that contains micro-particles of mica, glimmer and change as the viewer moves and the light changes. Due to the carefully layered depths of the semi-translucent paint, light is able to travel within the painting’s surface, reflecting and refracting off the micro-particles, and causing these magical and surprising shifts of color. Soft golds, copper, and burnished purples shift to pinks, blues. In the context of this exhibition’s “garden” they act much like windows – allowing for sudden vistas of mysterious other worlds outside the garden walls.
If at all possible, it is important to view the Flower paintings in different kinds of light. These are works that have so many possible aspects, it is best to see them over time. The waving red, purple, pink, and peach petals will flash suddenly. Long tendrils of pale gold and blue seem to move. Fans of blue, pink, and periwinkle blooms deepen and reveal hidden depths. In sunset or low light, they seem to take on a phosphorescent quality – glowing up out of the darkness as if they have their own source of internal light. If there is something we have all learned in the past few years, it is the visceral reality of transience. Things that seemed inevitable and eternal turn out to be fragile and mutable. David Simpson’s work embraces the inevitability of change with its very media, the interference paint that never presents exactly the same picture, and with the Flower pieces of the Vanitas series, it takes on the concept directly. The Vanitas movement of still-life paintings in the 16th and 17th century Netherlands presented beautiful images of flowers, fruit, and other delicacies as memento mori – reminders of the inevitability of death. Inspired by these works, Simpson’s Flowers are extraordinary, eerie, ethereal visions of beauty. The series of potted flowers in this exhibition not only shows potted flowers in all their glory – but tracks their decay and death. But even in the final phase, when the flowers are faded to pale ghosts– they remain beautiful. And this, above everything, is the instinctive experience of Simpson’s work – the knowing that transience only makes the world more beautiful. That regardless of your persuasion about what happens after death, beauty is here, in this world. Precious. Sparking and flickering in color. Shivering and always changing. Shining forth from out of the darkness. - Michaela Kahn, PhD
Small Favor, 2002, acrylic on canvas (interference pigment), 22 x 22 inches
Summer Solstice, 2004, acrylic on canvas (interference pigment), 12 x 12 inches
Red Robin, 1997, acrylic on canvas (interference pigment), 12 x 12 inches
Lilac Light, 2005, acrylic on canvas (interference pigment), 12 x 12 inches
Oranje, 2016, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 34 x 34 inches
Daze, 2017, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 34 x 34 inches
May Day, 2019, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 34 x 34 inches
Floral Tide, 2021, acrylic on canvas over board, 78 x 18 inches
Red Eye, 2007, acrylic on canvas (interference pigment), 12 x 12 inches
Light Well #10, 2008, acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment), 48 x 48 inches
Small Light Well #2, 2007, acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment), 15 x 15 inches
Small Light Well #1, 2007, acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment), 15 x 15 inches
Copper Light, 1997-2004, acrylic on canvas (interference pigment), 66 x 66 inches
Mink, 2011, acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment), 6 x 6 inches
Tang, 2011, acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment), 6 x 6 inches
Hot Gold, 1996, acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment), 6 x 6 inches
Little Gold Consort, 1997, acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment), 6 x 6 inches
Gold Conundrum, 2000, acrylic on canvas (Interference pigment), 48 x 48 inches
Large Dandy Lion #2, 2021, acrylic on board, 12 x 9 inches
Night Shift, 2018, acrylic on canvas (interference pigment), 22 x 22 inches
Dogwood Lavender, 2021, acrylic on panel, 55 x 13 inches
May Bouquet #01, 2021, acrylic on board, 23 x 16 inches May Bouquet#1,2021, acrylic on board, 23 x 16 inches May Bouquet #2, 2021, acrylic on board, 23 x 16 inches May Bouquet #3, 2021, acrylic on board, 23 x 16 inches
Night Shade ‘21 (#1), 2021, acrylic on panel, 57 x 14 inches
Wisteria (#2), 2021, acrylic on panel, 57 x 14 inches
Oak Leaves (#3), 2021, acrylic on panel, 57 x 14 inches
Small Favor, 2002 acrylic on canvas (interference pigment) 22 x 22 in. DS0028 Click to inquire about this work
$9,500
May Day, 2019 acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment) 34 x 34 in. DS476 Click to inquire about this work
$15,000
Summer Solstice, 2004 acrylic on canvas (interference pigment) 12 x 12 in. DS0014 Click to inquire about this work
$6,000
Floral Tide, 2021 acrylic on canvas over board 78 x 18 x 2 in. DS512 Click to inquire about this work
$25,000
Red Robin, 1997 acrylic on canvas (interference pigment) 12 x 12 in. DS268 Click to inquire about this work
$6,000
Red Eye, 2007 Acrylic on canvas (interference pigment) 12 x 12 in. DS0067 Click to inquire about this work
$6,000
Lilac Light, 2005 Acrylic on canvas (interference pigment) 12 x 12 in. DS0015 Click to inquire about this work
$6,000
Light Well #10, 2008 acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment) 48 x 48 in. DS511 Click to inquire about this work
$25,000
Oranje, 2016 Acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment) 34 x 34 in. DS283 Click to inquire about this work
$15,000
Small Light Well #2, 2007 acrylic on board (Interference pigment) 15 x 15 in. DS510 Click to inquire about this work
$7,500
Daze, 2017 acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment) 34 x 34 in. DS401 Click to inquire about this work
$15,000
Small Light Well #1, 2007 acrylic on board (Interference pigment) 15 x 15 in. DS502 Click to inquire about this work
$7,500
Copper Light, 1997-2004 Acrylic on canvas (interference pigment) 66 x 66 in. DS0054 Click to inquire about this work
$40,000
Large Dandy Lion #2, 2021 acrylic on board 12 x 9 in. DS509 Click to inquire about this work
$3,200
Mink, 2011 acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment) 6 x 6 in. DS518 Click to inquire about this work
$5,000
Night Shift, 2018 acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment) 22 x 22 in. DS503 Click to inquire about this work
$9,500
Tang, 2011 acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment) 6 x 6 in. DS519 Click to inquire about this work
$5,000
Dogwood Lavender, 2021 acrylic on panel 55 x 13 in. DS513 Click to inquire about this work
$18,000
Hot Gold, 1996 acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment) 6 x 6 in. DS520 Click to inquire about this work
$5,000
May Bouquet #01, #1, #2, #3, 2021 acrylic on board 23 x 16 in. each DS504-7 Click to inquire about this work
$28,000
Little Gold Consort, 1997 acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment) 6 x 6 in. DS521 Click to inquire about this work
$5,000
Night Shade ‘21, Wisteria, Oak Leaves, 2021 acrylic on panel 57 x 14 inches each DS514-16 Click to inquire about this work
$18,000 each
Gold Conundrum, 2000 acrylic on canvas (Interference pigment) 48 x 48 in. DS517 Click to inquire about this work
$25,000
Born: 1928 in Pasadena, CA Lives & works in Berkeley, CA Education: 1958 1956
MFA, San Francisco State College BFA, California School of Fine Arts
Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2022, 20, 19, 18 Charlotte Jackson FIne Art, Santa Fe, NM 2021 Studio La Vitta, Verona, IT 2020, 18, 16, 11 Haines Gallery, San Francicso, CA 2016, 15 Geukens & De Vil COntemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium 2013 University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, WY 2012, 07, 05 Gallery SOnja Roesch, Houston, TX 2009 Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2000 Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Santa Rosa, CA 1990 Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE 1978 The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA 1967 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA 1964, 63, 61 Robert Elkon Gallery, New York, NY 1960 Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA 1959 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA Selected Group Exhibitions: 2014 Museo Fortuny, Venica, Italy 2010 Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA 2009 Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Long Island, NY 2007, 05 Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY 2005 Cicic Museum, Linden, Germany 2000 US Berkely Art Museum, Berkeley, VA The Panza di Biumo Collection, Varese, Italy 1995 M.H. de Young Memorial Art Museum, San Francisco, CA 1986 Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 1985 The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA 1978 American Abstract Art Sincer 1945, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (traveling) 1964 Post-Painterly Abstraction, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (traveling)
1963 Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY 1963 cont. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN 1962 Tornio Museum of Modern Art, Italy Fifty Calivornians, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY 1955 Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO M.H. de Young Memorial Art Museum, San Francisco, CA Selected Collections: Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA M.H. de Young Museum, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA La Jolla Museum of Art, La Jolla, CA John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, Il Museum of Contemporary Art (MART), Roverato, Italy Museo di Arte Cantonale, Lugano, Switzerland Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Trento, Italy Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, CA Panza Collection, Lugano, Switzerland Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza, Biumo Superiore, Varese, Italy Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY Reed College, Portland, OR San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA Seattle Museum of Art, Seattle, WA Shasta College, Redding, CA University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
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