"Currents 80: Gary Simmons"
1999-12-10 until 2000-02-27
St. Louis Art Museum
St. Louis, MO, USA United States of America

Currents 80: Gary Simmons presents new photographic work from the artist’s Classroom Lecture Series. Shot at Ivy League universities, including Columbia University in New York, these large-scale color photographs feature images of traditional collegiate classrooms. Devoid of people, Simmons’ empty architectural spaces are haunting and ghostly. This installation for The Saint Louis Art Museum is comprised of unique, mural sized color prints, which are among the largest photographs to be shown at the Museum to date.

With this photographic series, Simmons continues his fascination with classrooms and their contents, including seminar rooms, lecture halls and auditoriums inhabited by distinctive chairs, desks and black boards. This work is consistent with his earlier Erasure Drawings, comprised of white chalk drawings on slate-painted walls, which explore the signs and symbols of American culture and pedagogy.

Currents 80: Gary Simmons, curated by Rochelle Steiner, assistant curator of contemporary art, will be on view in Gallery 337 from December 10 through February 27, 2000. Simmons, who lives and works in New York, has exhibited his work at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego.

Currents 80: Gary Simmons is part of a series of exhibitions featuring the work of contemporary artists.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Missouri

Other Important Exhibitions in St. Louis