70 Artworks Chosen to Represent Gary Simmons’s Practice
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) presents a large-scale career survey of work by the multidisciplinary artist Gary Simmons. Curated by René Morales, James W. Alsdorf chief curator, Jadine Collingwood, assistant curator, and Jack Schneider, curatorial associate, of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and with major support by the Terra Foundation for American Art, the riveting show, titled “Public Enemy,” illuminates 30 years of the artist’s deft practice. Roughly 70 works—including paintings, sculptures, photographs, works on paper, and site-specific wall drawings—investigate the complex intersection of race and class in American history with sensitivity and nuance. Thoughtfully arranged in sections from Miseducation to Erasure to Recurrence, the exhibition unearths the problematic legacies hidden throughout American pop culture. Step into the Arena (The Essentialist Trap) (1994) is an immersive boxing ring embellished with chalk footwork drawings of the Cakewalk dance, while shining onyx tap shoes are suspended from the ropes, illustrating the ominous exploitation of African American men as entertainment.
