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RECENT ACTIVITIES


EXHIBITIONS
(Number of exhibitors is placed in parentheses at the end of entry)

2003

  • “ Protracted Visions”, Spartanburg County Museum of Art, Parsons Gallery, Spartanburg, SC (1).

    2002

  • “ Group Show”, Gallery Alexie, New York, NY
  • “ What’s New”: An Exhibition of Art by Carolina Artists, Tryon Center for Visual Art’s Spirit Square Galleries, Charlotte, North Carolina (25).

    2001

  • “ Natural Remains”, Weizenblatt Gallery, Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, North Carolina. (1)
  • “Energies Within” with M. Fosse & C. Yasoshima, Agora Gallery, New York, NY (3).
  • “ Halpert Biennial”, Catherine J. Smith Gallery, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC

    2000

  • “ Change In Place”, Rowe Gallery, Art Department, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (1)
  • “ Organic Language: From Nature to Abstraction”, Worrell Professional Center, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC (6).
  • “ Mixed Media: An International Juried Art Exhibition”, Period Gallery, Omaha, NE.

AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

2001

  • “ Arts and Science Council Project Grant”, published brochure “Natural Remains”, Charlotte, NC.
  • “ Soho International Art Competition”, “Honorable Mention”, Agora Gallery, New York, NY.
  • “ National Art Competition”: “Award of Excellence” Nicolette College Gallery, Rhinelander, WI.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • 2002 - Charlotte Observer, “Area Artists Find Showplace at Tryon Center”, by Richard Marshall, 2/15, E&T, p. 24.
  • 2001 - Watercolor Magic: Yearbook 2002”, (statement with photo)“Ones to Watch”, December 2001, p. 37.
  • 2001 - Daily News, (photo of juror Ed Paschke with one of my paintings) “Judge Looks to Meet Art Halfway”, July 25, 2001, pp. 1 and 8, Rhinelander, Wisconsin.

AFFILIATIONS

  • Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, New York, NY
  • Art South, Philadelphia, PA
  • Boston Corporate Art, Boston,
  • MA Joie Lassiter Gallery (affiliate), Charlotte, NC

COLLECTIONS

  • Merck and Company,
  • Rahway, NJ Wachovia (First Union), Charlotte, NC
  • McGraw Hill, New York, NY
  • The State of Alabama, Montgomery, Al

PART-TIME TEACHING

  • Winthrop University University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  • Rock Hill, SC Charlotte, NC

 

 

 

 


Simpson in front of the work "Projection"

 

Excerpts from Exhibition Reviews

“The Red Clay Survey” Fourth Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Southern Art”
by William Dooley: Art Papers (competition). 1994
... Simpson provides a monumental moonlit “rockscape” in “InLandIn” (1992, oil on canvas). The luminous blue toned piece seems like the vehicle for a spiritual journey.

“ City’s Galleries Show New, Innovative Artists: Paintings by J. Michael Simpson”
by James Nelson, “Birmingham News” (solo exhibition), 1993.
His paintings are large, highly tactile, abstract surfaces that appear to swirl and undulate like technicolor lava over rough terrain. Simposn works with just a few colors, using short, flickering brush work to create highly animated surfaces.

“Faculty Art Exhibit at Auburn University at Montgomery....”
by Christopher Payne, “Montgomery Advertiser” (six person exhibition),1993 [in reference to “CrossOverCross”]...the bars act as counterweight, momentary lapses of definition and logic in the tempestuous natural disorder. A balance is struck between the bold and the subtle, between the solid and the ethereal, between the emphatic and the generalized.

“Stones and Streams”
 by James R. Nelson, “Birmingham News” (solo exhibition), 1992.
Tones are woven into each other with little more than undulating changes of hue with large areas, creating the sense of great magnification of otherwise unseen confluence.

“ Fellowships Provide Crucial Support”
 by James R. Nelson, “The Birmingham News” ( (3 person exhibition), 1991.
There are no single points of focus in these works. Much like the water lily paintings of Claude Monet’s, Simpson works create an aura of tonal color. Indeed, his paintings elicit a single response to vibrant color combinations. One does not look at just a section of some specific point of interest in his works for understanding. The total work is the total focus; it cannot get more exact.

“ AUM [Auburn University at Montgomery] Shows Artist in Transition”
 by Christopher Payne, “Montgomery Advertiser” (solo exhibition), 1990.
The large paintings carry weight. They contain a pressure to be important, to justify their size, the amount of wall space they occupy, and the amount of time and materials they demand.

“ Exhibit See Above, Below the Waterline”
 by Chuck Twardy, “The Orlando Sentinel”, (2 person exhibition), 1990.
...Simpson’s palette is broad, bold and lively, a kind of postimpressionist stew... This is a strong show of two mid-career artists [with Deborah Brown] who draw inspiration from nature and paint in an engaging manner.