The Citiblog

Lorna Simpson’s ‘Earth & Sky’ Explores the Unseen Forces Shaping Humanity
October 29, 2024, 6:47.25 pm ET

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Artist Lorna Simpson unveils Earth & Sky (Nov 2 - Jan 11, 2025), a powerful new body of work exploring humanity’s complex relationships with invisible forces that shape our lives. Drawing inspiration from the 1929 textbook Minerals from Earth and Sky, Simpson’s exhibit at The Met combines large-scale paintings and text-based sculptures, each piece examining both the beauty and dangers of unseen forces, from meteorites to bullets. In a space resembling a temple, Simpson’s silvery, monochromatic works blend natural elements and history, depicting both cosmic and earthly impacts that influence us individually and across generations.

Among the highlights, a striking wall sculpture recounts a story from the textbook: a Black Mississippi sharecropper’s awe at a still-warm meteorite that landed at his feet, recontextualized by Simpson's research, which names him as Ed Bush. This work not only resonates with Simpson’s early explorations of text-image juxtapositions but also connects personal narratives to broader metaphysical questions. Known for her multifaceted practice and conceptual photography, Simpson’s work continues to deepen our understanding of identity, history, and unseen phenomena, and will be further celebrated in Lorna Simpson: Source Notes, a career-spanning retrospective of her painting at The Met in 2025.

Image: Lorna Simpson © Lorna Simpson. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth Photo: James Wang


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