Gary Simmonds MA, BA
Senior Lecturer and Course Leader
- Department of Art and Design
- Art Design and Media Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Centre
- Culture and Creativity Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Institute
Summary
I am Senior Lecturer and Course Leader in Creative Art Practice at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ. The Creative Art Practice course explores the potential space between Fine and Applied Arts - it seeks to draw from other disciplines while being firmly routed in the tenets of an art practice. I lead a series of workshops that set out to invigorate students interest and practice in painting and I have set up a discussion group for students, entitled 'Art School', which explores the currency of painting.
About
I make paintings that explore the space between abstraction and pattern. I enjoy the proximity of painting in relation to the decorative and the domestic. I see painting as a space to enable a visual and physical encounter, which can be immersive and intimate, thoughtful yet seductive, both playful and considered. My painting relies on the nature of abstraction, but also on an abstraction of nature. I am interested in the way painting enables a space not only between abstraction and nature, but also between abstraction and decoration. I take pleasure in the language of abstract painting: how it allows us to view the world in relation to this language. I am seduced by paint as a material and how that informs and leads a process that is contingent to its context. I adopt strategies that set up a distance between artist and outcome. Earlier works include a series of paintings with a hand-crafted squeegee where paint is left as a smear of colour on the surface of a board. This semi-automatic act of contingent mark-marking became an iterative process. When structured by the grid this process set up relation and dialogue between abstract painting, pattern, and decoration, presenting an ordered dysfunction.
I have an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, London, and a BA in Fine Art from the University of Central England, Birmingham. I have exhibited work both nationally and internationally, including solo shows in Milan and London. From 1999 to 2006 I was represented by Laure Genillard and One in the Other. Recent exhibitions include: Shapes and Colours (with Matthew Harrison) Westlane South Gallery, London (2013); Brutalist: Speculations and Propositions, Site Gallery, Sheffield (2013); Tegel: Flights of Fancy, Babylon Kino, Berlin (2012); 'Pile', Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff (2011); 'Nothing is Forever', South London Gallery, London (2010); and 'Die Panke', Lobe Projects, Berlin (2010).
Ï㽶ÊÓƵ
- Art and Design Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Centre
- Culture and Creativity Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Institute
Publications
Book chapters
Simmonds, G., & Trimming, L. (2009). . In Kivland, S. (Ed.) Host : The Stranger Bound Edition 2009. (pp. 1-16). London: Artwords Press:
Books
Kivland, S. (Ed.). (2010). . London: Artwordspress.
Theses / Dissertations
Taylor, D.R. (2023). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Mccormack, C., Simmonds, G., & Stirling, E.
O'Toole, B. (2020). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Kivland, S., Simmonds, G., & Tarlo, H.
Holmes, D.C. (2013). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by McCormack, T.C., Simmonds, G., & Joseph-Lester, J.
Exhibitions
Simmonds, G. (2010). . [Wall painting]. South London Gallery.
Simmonds, G. (2010). . [Painting]. Primo Alonso Gallery, London.
Simmonds, G. (2010). . [Painting]. Primo Alonso Gallery, London.
Simmonds, G., & Reynolds, O. (2010). . [watercolour on wall]. 35 Bad Str Chartreuse, Wedding, Berlin, Germany.
Simmonds, G., & Fisher, C. (2011). . [Painting]. Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff.
Simmonds, G., & Harrison, M. (2013). . [Painting/ objects]. West Lane South Gallery.
Simmonds, G., & Harrison, M. (2013). . [Painting/ objects]. West Lane South Gallery.
Simmonds, G., Putler, V., & Sykes, T. (2014). . [Paper/ Objects/ Paintings/ Textiles]. Artist Fleamarket, Artist Village, 1 Dragonfly Place, Brockley, London, SE4 2DP.
Simmonds, G., & Holmes, D. (2016). . [Painting Exhibition. Paint on board/ canvas]. Bloc Projects, 71 Eyre Lane, Sheffield S1 4RB.
Simmonds, G., & Holmes, D. (2016). . [Painting Exhibition. Paint on board/ canvas]. Bloc Projects, 71 Eyre Lane, Sheffield S1 4RB.
Simmonds, G. (2018). . [Acrylic paint on board]. Attercliffe TM, Sheffield.
Simmonds, G. (2018). . [Acrylic paint on board]. Attercliffe TM, Sheffield.
Simmonds, G. (2019). . [Acrylic on unprimed canvas]. Sabineknust, Gallery, Munich.
Simmonds, G. (2019). . [Acrylic on unprimed canvas]. Sabineknust, Gallery, Munich.
Simmonds, G., Lewis, P.L., & Rogers, C. (2021). . [Acrylic on unprimed canvas]. Holden Gallery, Manchester.
Presentations
Simmonds, G., & Taylor, D. (2019). . Presented at: Always in Translation, Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK, 2019
Simmonds, G., & Taylor, D. (2019). . Presented at: Always in Translation, Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK, 2019
Postgraduate supervision
Dale Holmes (2010-2013): 'Abstract Realism: Non-Anthropocentric Strategies for Constructing Non-Relational Artworks'