Dominique Simmons is a figurative artist. Her stories about “us” examine the difficult and complicated layers of the human experience. Her stories are gritty and irreverent, often referencing religion, morality, and sexuality.

Artist Statement

“I must say from the outset that I find beauty and solace in the creative process, even though my subject matter is often hard. I am a figurative artist and the story of “us” is difficult and complicated, and yet beautiful and compelling. The female forms at the beginning and end of this installation are not idealized in the classical sense, but are tattered, worn, tired and arguably sublime bookends to the flawed humanity seen in the work between them. The work reflects what I see, experience, and remember. The three dimensional works are meant to seem unfinished, like works in progress, as if documenting an experiment in evolution.

I call this show Material Evidence because the chosen mediums are crucial to the content of the story. Thread, glue, cloth, paper Mache, wax and paint are the
essential components I use to express our frailty and flaws. The figures are texturally rough, the cloth frayed. The thread crisscrosses and scars their bodies,
and color is used to evoke a visceral response, as seen in “Lazarus” and “Mother Mary Comes to Me”. In the achromatic and monochromatic work, I depend on
white surfaces and graphic mark-making to give the story gravitas and energy. I find cloth, string, cloth, and paper Mache to be the perfect materials to demonstrate
the rawness I want the viewer to experience.

In the pastel work there is a physicality and aggressiveness to the way I apply the pastel to paper. My pastel work is heavily layered, and I rely on scumbling, a pastel technique that involves dragging the pastel lightly across the surface, allowing the layers underneath to be seen. The content in the pastel work is commensurate to the form: the stories are gritty, and irreverent, often referencing religion, morality and sexuality. Making art is what keeps me going day in and day out, giving me purpose and structure. I believe the human form is the ultimate subject matter. Incumbent in my exploration of the human form is finding a balance between form and content and that must include evidence of a monumental struggle, of a difficult evolution.”