David Simpson: Works 1965–2015

DAVID SIMPSON: Works 1965–2015 offers a comprehensive look at the California artist’s output over a fifty-year period. 

The late 1980s signaled a transition away from the “hard-edged,” abstract works which characterized Simpson’s early career. From contrasting bands of monochrome which hum with vibrant intensity, the artist turned to nebulous washes of interference paint. He has painted mostly monochromatic work that hovers in an almost alchemical realm.

Using interference paints, composed of titanium dioxide electronically coated with mica particles, Simpson creates nuanced, mercurial paintings on smooth and active surfaces. The particles of mica act as tiny mirrors, reflecting light back and forth in ever more complicated patterns. 

The results transcend the very notion of paintings, as they play with the medium of light itself to create the monochromatic shift of color.