August 1, 2008

Architecture for the Body

Diane Simpson: Cover-ups

September 5– October 11, 2008

Chicago---Alfedena Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new sculptures and drawings by acclaimed Chicago artist Diane Simpson, titled Cover-ups, from September 5 – October 11, 2008. This is the artist’s first solo show at Alfedena Gallery.  A reception for the artist will be held on Friday, September 5, 5:00-8:00 p.m. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Since the early 1980s, Diane Simpson (b. Joliet, IL, 1935) has been one of Chicago’s most distinctive artists creating seductive three-dimensional forms that explore the complex relationships between sociology, garments, utilitarian design and the human body. Architectural elements are a strong influence on her work and she sees clothing as “architecture for the body.” The cliché, “you are what you wear” is reinterpreted by Simpson to suggest a more complex transformation in which a garment assumes the presence and history of the body it covers, becoming a hybrid of the man-made and the organic. The sixteen sculptures in Cover-ups were created between 2005 and 2008 and reflect her years of researching aprons, bibs, work belts, vests, tunics and other prosaic protective body coverings whose understated forms she appropriates and manipulates in order to transform the corporeal vulnerabilities of the body into iconic designs of strength, elegance and structural ingenuity.

Simpson’s materials --- perforated aluminum & steel, brass mesh, polyester fabric, industrial fiber, corrugated plastic, wood, linoleum, vinyl, thread --- reflect her interest in the coexistence of industrial and domestic worlds. Her means of assembling her works through stitching, wrapping, interlocking and riveting, are visually apparent and an integral part of each work’s form and structure. In a sculpture such as Work Belt, 2005, Simpson looked at carpenter’s aprons and tool belts as an extension of her previous series inspired by domestic aprons. In the abstract design that becomes Work Belt, the properties of the primary material, corrugated plastic, defines both the design and construction of the sculpture. Scoring, bending and folding transform a flat, stylized pattern into three-dimensions. Electrical cord, laced through the fluted openings of the belt, attach different sections emphasizing the utilitarian function of the original tool belt while underscoring Simpson’s approach to decoration which expresses architect Louis Sullivan’s dictum that “decoration is the embellishment of form.”

The sculptures in the exhibition are accompanied by eight of Simpson’s refined working drawings. These elaborate isometric pencil renderings on graph paper show her meticulous transformation of the flat patterns of her source materials into blueprints for three-dimensional objects that are a unique fusion of the pragmatism of assembly and the symbolism of ornamentation.

Diane Simpson earned an MFA (1978) and a BA (1971) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has had numerous solo shows including those at the Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI; Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, IN; I Space Gallery, Chicago; Phyllis Kind Gallery, NY/Chicago; Fassbender Gallery, Chicago; Sybaris Gallery, Royal Oak, MI; Dart Gallery, Chicago; Chicago Cultural Center; Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, and has been included in multiple groups shows including those at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, the South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN and the Snite Museum, Notre Dame University. Her work has been reviewed in Art in America, Sculpture, Fiber Arts, Arts Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Dialogue, New Art Examiner and Village Voice. Her work is included in the public collections of the Print & Drawing Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, Crocker Bank, San Francisco, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the James R. Thompson Center, Chicago.

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