NetWorks Rhode Island and the Chazan Collection Exhibition, WaterFire Arts Center (2024) Bio:
Gretchen Dow Simpson is the recipient of several prestigious commissions, including assignments from Bostonian Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Absolut Vodka, and Kirin Seagram Company. She has held solo shows and group exhibitions in museums and galleries across the country. Her work is held by many private collectors and corporations. She received the Pell Award in 2005 and an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Bryant University in 2009.
She began her distinguished career taking photographs of buildings and worked as a freelance photographer in Boston, New York City, Minneapolis, and Scranton from 1962-1970.
Her first painting was purchased by The New Yorker magazine in 1974 and 58 paintings were used as covers over a 21-year period. She is best known for her distinctive views of New England architecture. Simpson’s paintings are recognizable by their clean-lined, architectonic focus, with flat surfaces and deep perspective. Deceptively simplified, these paintings balance shapes, colors, textures, flatness and depth, all in a nearly flat frontal plane. The calm strength of these paintings is evocative of the comment, by 19th century Romantic Realist artist J. F. Millet, that “It is the treating of the commonplace with the feeling of the sublime that gives art its true power.”
Original NetWorks Catalogue Bio:
A native New Englander who graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, Gretchen Dow Simpson spent many years living in New York City, where she completed over 65 covers for The New Yorker magazine. In 1985, an exhibition at the Newport Art Museum brought her back to the area, and she moved to Providence’s East Side. Simpson considers herself a “painter with a photographer’s eye,” and architectural forms have always drawn her. Simpson has shown her work at the Virginia Lynch Gallery in RI and the Mary Ryan Gallery in NYC and numerous other venues. She recently painted a mural on Route 95 for the Governor’s Highway Beautification Project. She has been the recipient of a Pell award and an honorary doctorate from Bryant University.
Source: NetWorks 2015-2016 Catalogue
Oil on linen, 18 x 22 in.
Credits:
Video: Richard Goulis
Executive Producer: Joseph A. Chazan, M.D.
Additional Resources:
Artist’s website: gretchendowsimpson.com
Highlighting the work of selected artists who have played vital roles in shaping the contemporary visual arts community in Rhode Island. This collection of brief video portraits provides a window into the lives, practices, and cultural contributions of professional artists.
