Gary Simmons

After leaving Cal Arts in 1990, Gary Simmons (born 1964) moved to New York and set up studio in a former vocational school building, where he found himself clearing away chalkboards to make space for his sculpture. Soon after, Simmons began his first series of chalk drawings on blackboards. It was this work, focusing on the development of racial, class and cultural identities within pedagogical settings, which paved the way for his signature "erasure" technique and made his name. While Simmons, who has often defined himself as a sculptor, is widely known for these erasure drawings, he has consistently worked across media, and this overview of Simmons's 20-plus year career brings together for the first time in a single publication his photographs, installations, sculptures, drawings and paintings. Alongside approximately 150 plates, Gwen Allen, Okwui Enwezor and Charles Wylie contribute critical perspectives on Simmons' ever-resonant work.