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World in Progress is an interactive virtual reality piece that is based on the paintings in the Saga Series. It is an evolving project that explores what it means to have an emotional experience within an artwork. Right now the best description of this piece comes in the form of questions. What happens to paintings when they become interactive virtual reality? How does the handmade artwork translate into a space that is traditionally for gaming? Can an artwork that is deeply personal and subjective creat an experience of sympathy when it is in an immersive form? Can paintings and VR work together to create an experience of a new kind of artwork? Can VR be about empathy? Craig Stover recently interviewed me for his wonderful series of conversations with contemporary artists, ArtShow. My segment is below. I also post in-progress clips on Instagram. You can take a look at a short video clip of an early prototype on here. I showed the VR work to viewers in 2023 at the Philadelphia Free Library with the Philadelphia Center for the Book and in the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours. If you are interested in seeing the piece, email sam@samanthasimpson.com. The Saga series was shown at the Rosewood Gallery in the Kettering Art Centre in Kettering OH in April of 2021. They made a really nice video about the show that you can see on facebook here. I also posted a short artists' talk on instagram which you can see here. Saga 2 was included in My American Experience, an online exhibition curated by Lauren Palmor, the Assistant Curator of American Art at the de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The show was put together by the O'Hanlon Center for the Arts in Mill Valley, CA. There was an Artist's Roundtable event on zoom on March 9th that is available on their vimeo page. My new artists' book, Fred Petersen, CEO in Nature (left) was included in A Watched Pot Always Boils at Umpquaa Valley Arts in Roseburg Oregon. The book is also available on my studio storefront along with Still Still, I Mean it After All, a larger book of paintings.
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Samantha Simpson makes interactive VR, books and work on paper. She has a long history of painting on paper but is now making immersive painted worlds in VR. Her work asks questions about empathy, artmaking and politics within the frame of a theatrical vision of the natural world. Simpson’s work has been shown nationally and internationally, and has been included in solo and two-person exhibitions at the Rosewood Art Gallery, Firehouse Art Center, Firecat Projects; Gallery Joe; Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center; Tufts University; the Lawndale Art Center in Houston; Slugfest Printmaking Workshop in Austin, Texas and Gallerie Michael Rasche in Fribourg, Germany. Her art has been included in group exhibitions at the Atlanta Contemporary Museum; Moti Hasson Gallery; Gallery Joe; the Cornell Museum of Art; New Langton Arts; Southern Exposure; the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Gallerie Magda Danysz in Paris, France, among others. Her work can be found in the private and public collections of the Sackner Archive of Visual Poetry, the DiRosa Foundation Collection and the collections at Wesleyan and Cornell University galleries. She is the recipient of grants from the Leeway Foundation and Temple University and was a finalist for a Pew Fellowship. She has attended residencies at the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Headlands Center for the Arts and teaches at Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia.
| Exhibitions | Press | Residencies | Education | Collections | Teaching |
Solo & 2/3 Person Exhibitions
Samantha Simpson: Saga Rosewood Art Gallery, Kettering OH 2021
Interesting Times: Robin Hextrum, Samantha Simpson & Katheryn Jill Johnson, Firehouse Art Center, Longmont CO, 2019
More than I had to Say, Firecat Projects, Chicago 2012
Samantha Simpson & Rachel Perry Welty, Gallery Joe, Philadelphia, PA 2008
Exotic Narrative, Philadelphia Airport Exhibitions Program, Philadelphia International Airport, 2006
The Problem of Prevost's Squirrel, Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2005
The Pernicious Natural, Aidekman Art Center, Tufts University, Medford, MA 2005
Prehistory of the Garden, DC Arts Center, Washington, DC 2004
Lush Life, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA 2004
Strategies, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX 2003
Snake Cycle: Samantha Simpson, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo, NY 2002
Snake Cycle, Westchester Art Workshop, SUNY/Westchester Community College, Westchester, NY 2002
Samantha Simpson, Slugfest Gallery, Austin, TX 2002
Selected Group Exhibitions and Projects
Ongoing: Philadelphia Artist in Residence, Pollinator Gallery, 2024
Open Book: Artists Working Group, Philadelphia Free Library Central Branch, with the Philadelphia Center for the Book, 2023
My American Experience, curated by Lauren Palmor, O'Hanlon Art Center, Mill Valley CA 2021
CFEVA Annual Members Exhibition, curated by Mary Salvante, Philadelphia PA 2019
Mixed Media, cureated by Gracie Mansion, Site: Brooklyn Gallery, Brooklyn NY 2018
New Directions 2018, curated by Jennifer Ignacio, Barrett Art Center Poughkeepsie NY 2018
Parsing Sign and Image,
Vets Gallery, Providence RI 2018
Flora and Fauna, curated by Regan Rosberg, Core New Art Space, Denver CO 2018
Making Space, Leeway Foundations Library Installation, Philadelphia PA 2018
Little Lexicons, Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia PA 2016
A City of Artists, Philadelphia Art in City Hall Gallery, Philadelphia PA 2016
Messages and American Dreams, Episcopal Academy Crawford Gallery Newtown Square PA 2016
The Way They See It, the Way They Tell It, Episcopal Academy Crawford Gallery Newtown Square PA 2015
Bye Bye Old City, Gallery Joe, Philadelphia PA 2015
Joy, Gallery Joe, Philadelphia PA 2014
Drawing Now, Artspace Liberti, Philadelphia 2014
Narcissus in the Studio, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia 2011
La Main qui Dessinate Toute Seule at Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris, 2009
Ink! Gallery Joe, Philadelphia, PA 2007
I Woke Up in a Strange Place, Moti Hasson Gallery, NY,NY 2005-2006
New Releases, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA 2004
Artists in the Studio: 30 Years at the Millay Colony for the Arts, Albany International Airport
Gallery, Albany, NY 2004
Drawing on Landscape, Gallery Joe, Philadelphia, PA 2003
Inspirational Choices, NARAL Benefit Auction, Philadelphia PA 2003
Red Dot 3, Spector Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2002
Art at Steepletop, Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY 2002
Reciprocity, Print Portfolio
Atlanta 2001 Biennial: When the Wind Blows, Atlanta Contemporary Museum, Atlanta GA 2001
Samantha & Margaret Simpson, Slugfest Gallery, Austin, TX 2000
Bizarro World, Cornell Museum of Fine Arts, Orlando, FL 2000
Art & Technology, Ormond Memorial Art Museum, Ormond, FL 1999
3 Amerikanische Positionen, Gallerie Michael Rache, Fribourg, Germany 1999
Work on Paper, Arts on Douglas, Ormond, FL 1998
Art & Technology, Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL 1997
Projections in Public, Side Street Projects, San Francisco, CA 1996
Optimism & Sarcasm, The Lab, San Francisco, CA 1996
Integrated Hemispheres, Blasthaus, San Francisco, CA 1996
Spirographs, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA 1995
Center for the Art at Yerba Buena Gardens Downtown Windows Exhibition, San Francisco, CA 1995
Big Jesus Trash Can, Installation, The Victoria Room, San Francisco, CA 1995
Art 94 Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 1994
Self Portrait, The Victoria Room, San Francisco, CA 1994
Prehistoric, The Victoria Room, San Francisco, CA 1994
Art Kit, Musee d'Honneur Miniscule,New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA 1993
Ninth Annual Exhibition, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA 1993
Selected Press
Feige, Jacob, “Drawing Now”, October 20, 2014
Schwartz, Chip, “Drawn Together in Philadelphia, Knight Arts, September 9 2014
Newhall, Edith, "Ballpoint Pen Drawings with Wit and Charm,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 16, 2008
Fallon, Roberta. “Silhouettes and Drawings Rule the New School" Philadelphia Weekly, May 14, 2008
Newhall, Edith, Drawings that Dot the 'I' in Ink,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 20, 2007
Hill, Lori. "First Friday Focus," Philadelphia Citypaper, July 5, 2007
Fallon, Roberta. “Ink!" Philadelphia Weekly, July 18, 2007
Fallon, Roberta, “Ink at Gallery Joe,” Artblog, July 18, 2007
Johnson, Ken. I Woke Up in a Strange Place,” New York Times, January 13, 2006.
Newhall, Edith. “The Surreal to the Allegorical,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 23, 2005
Fallon, Roberta. “Editor’s Pick,” Philadelphia Weekly, December 21, 2005
"Animal Fables," Ed Sosanski, Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 2004
"Local Muses," Roberta Fallon, Philadelphia Weekly, November 3, 2004
"New Releases and Paradise, Photographs by Lily Frisco, Roberta Fallon, Philadelphia Weekly, August 4, 2004
"From the Artist's Mouth," Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosoff's Artblog, August 12, 2004
"First Friday ups and Downs," Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosoff's Artblog, August 8, 2004
"First Friday Fireworks," Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosoff's Artblog, July 5, 2004
"Lines Dance," Roberta Fallon, Philadelphia Weekly,February 12, 2003
"Cartoon Confrontations,Samantha Simpson's 'The Snake Cycle' at Hallwalls, Mark Lavatelli, ArtVoice, June 20-26,2002
"Fantasies and Nightmares,"Cathy Byrd, Creative Loafing, April 11, 2001
"Samantha Simpson's Snake Cycle," John Massier, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, 2002
“The Greatest Shows in Town,” Steve Mitchell, ArtVoice, June 13, 2002
“When the Wind Blows:2001 Atlanta Biennial,” Stephanie Bowman, Art Papers, September 2001
“Biennial’s Big ‘Wind’ Has Small Substance”, Catherine Fox, Atlanta Journal Constitution, April 20, 2001
“When the Wind Blows: 2001 Atlanta Biennial,” Catalog essay, Teresa Bramlette
“Bizarro World: The Parallel Universes of Comics & Fine Arts” Ron Abrams, Catalog Essay, Cornell Museum 2000
"Double Vision", Steve Schneider, Orlando Weekly, March 16-22, 2000
"Wake up and hear, see and feel the difference", Laura Stewart, Daytona News Journal, December 12, 1999
"Art & Technology at the Ormond Art Museum", Carla Brooke, Flagler-Palm Coast Community Times, December 29, 1999
"Airbrush, Kegel und Selbstportrat", Badische Zeitung, May 22, 1999
"Samantha Simpson", Pat Benson, Leonardo, February, 1997
"Big Jesus Trash Can", Harry Roche, San Francisco Bay Guardian, February 8-14, 1995
"The New Renaissance of San Francisco Dealers", Jeffrey Bernstein, Art West, January,1995
"Drawing First, Harry Roche, San Francisco Bay Guardian, December 1, 1993
"Pop Pix, Prehistoric at the Victoria Room," Robert Friedman, Art week, October 21, 1993
"Inviting Art at an Uninviting Location," Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, September 27, 1993
2002 Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerliz NY
1998 Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL Writing Art Criticism: Affiliate
Artist with Carter Ratcliff
1995-1997 Headlands Center for the Arts: Affiliate Artist
MFA Painting 1993 San Francisco Art Institute
BFA 1990 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Austin Conkey, San Francisco, CA
Ann Newman, Williamsville, NY
Astrid Bowlby, Philadelphia, PA
Becky Kerlin, Philadelphia, PA
Barbara Hammar, New York, NY
Michelle Rollman, New York, NY
Rene & Veronica DiRosa Foundation, Napa, CA
Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University
Davison Art Center at Wesleyan University
Teaching
2006-present Associate Professor, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
2000-2006 Assistant Professor, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
1997-99 Assistant Professor, Digital Media Program, Art Department, Stetson University, Deland, FL
1996 Professor, Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, GA
Visiting Lectures
2000 Visiting Speaker, Cornell Museum of Art, Orlando, FL
1998 Visiting Faculty, Artists Critique Workshop, Ormond Museum of Art, Ormond, FL
1996 Visiting Artist Lecture, Memphis College of Art
1992 Artist's Lecture, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
1996 Artist Lecture Series, Headlands Center for the Arts