Inspired by the blackboards and chalk left behind in the former classrooms, he began a series of drawings in chalk on slate-covered paper. These works recall cartoons from the 1930s and 1940s that depict minstrel stereotypes. Through smearing the chalk with his hands, Simmons distorts the image—a type of erasure that appears throughout his work—to challenge the imagery while playing with the chalkboard medium as a common pedagogical tool. The artist notes, “I started to think about how images on blackboards can never fully be erased. It was about trying to erase a stereotype and the traces of the racial pain that you drag along with you.”1 Additional works by Simmons have explored silent films and African American actors who have faded from history and voices in music that shape contemporary culture.

Simmons received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts and his MFA from CalArts. He is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Interarts Grant (1990); Penny McCall Foundation Grant (1991); and Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize from the Studio Museum (2013). The Studio Museum has featured his work in numerous exhibitions, including Gary Simmons (2002); The Bearden Project (2012); and Excerpt (2017).

1) “Gary Simmons,” Hauser & Wirth, accessed November 4, 2022, hauserwirth.com/artists/33677-gary-simmons/.