NEW YORK, NY.- James Cohan is announced the representation of Chicago-based artist Diane Simpson. The artist will have her debut solo exhibition with the gallery next month, opening February 15, 2024 at 48 Walker Street. Simpson is represented in collaboration with Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago and Herald St, London.

For over four decades, Diane Simpson has created rigorously constructed sculptures originating from clothing, furniture, utilitarian objects, and architectural sources. Attentive to the formal qualities of these vernacular references, Simpson playfully oscillates between two and three dimensional space by translating her subjects to schematic drawings and then, using the same tricks of pictorial illusion, transforming them back into actual space. The results are curiously flattened three dimensional versions of familiar objects rendered in a wide range of materials, from linoleum to perforated metal.

On the occasion of the newly announced representation of Diane Simpson, James Cohan will present a historic exhibition of the artist’s foundational cardboard sculptures from 1977-1980, opening on Thursday, February 15th at 48 Walker.

Symbolic of her groundbreaking visual language that she continues today, Simpson’s early cardboard constructions mark a significant shift in the artist’s practice. Utilizing her schooling in drawing and printmaking, Simpson translated two-dimensional pictorial techniques for building volume into three-dimensional interlocking sculptures, acutely employing a 45-degree rotation to allow for multi-perspectival viewings, and as Simpson writes, “unplanned surprises and contradictions.”

The gallery will host a conversation with Simpson and artist Mernet Larsen led by curator Dan Byers on Thursday, February 15, 2024 at 4PM at its 52 Walker space. This event is free and open to the public. No prior registration is required.