Painting in the Dark
Lorna Simpson at Hauser & Wirth
Turbulent times, whether they are personal or cultural, often require us to adapt and change, and this is often reflected in the work of artists. One such example is the artist Lorna Simpson. Originally finding success in photography and installation, Simpson recently has turned to painting after decades away from it. In her latest show entitled Darkening at Hauser & Wirth in New York, Simpson dives into the fear, loss, and melancholy in her own world and the world around her.
Lorna Simpson has not been painting for very long, but her transition into this mode of working is already confident and arresting. This particular body of work is mostly done in rich, dark blues and blacks, sprawling in scale. Peaks of icebergs and glaciers are discernible on some canvases, fragmented images of women on others. Poetic text is scrawled on the canvases as well. The dark tones and colors allow images and text to become more ambiguous and less defined. In painting, Simpson seems to be most skilled and comfortable when working between figuration and abstraction, a sort of in-between space.
These moody and isolated works come from a very personal place for Simpson. The artist has said that she has lost several people in her life recently, so these works are a manifestation and exploration of grief. Politics in the United States also has left the artist in a dark state of mind. For an artist who is permanently associated with black female identity, the people in power at this moment in time are in direct opposition to her work and life. This show is an embrace of these overwhelmingly negative states and experiences, but Simpson is by no means being swallowed up by them. She has produced art that captures the complex and messy feelings of personal and collective loss.
