los angeles art gary simmons Using stereotypes of popular culture, the African American artist from NYC negotiates “between the static vocabulary of race, gender, and class stereotypes.” He is best known for his “erasure drawings,” in which he draws in white chalk on slate-colored panels or walls, then smudges them with his hands. The flames that often appear in his drawings and paintings evoke the horrors perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan.
GARY SIMMONS, UNTITLED, 2009, OIL ON CANVAS, 30 X 84 INCHES, COPYRIGHT GARY SIMMONS AND COURTESY OF REGEN PROJECTS, LOS ANGELES