Forest Figures by Gregg Simpson

Born in Ottawa in 1947, Canadian artist Gregg Simpson grew up in Vancouver and takes his inspiration from both the west coast rainforest and European trends in surrealism and lyric abstraction. Simpson’s work has evolved from the collages and pop-influenced paintings of the 1960s, through the neo-Surrealism of the 1970s to an organic abstraction in the 1980s that led to his current work based in both landscape and the figure. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries in Canada, the United States, Italy, France, England, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Chile, Australia, and Malaysia and is included in over 100 private and public collections internationally. Simpson’s work has been written about in several art journals, history books, and academic studies published by institutions including the Sorbonne in Paris, the Université Rabelais de Tours, and the Accademia Tiberina in Rome. In addition, his work was included in L’Univers Surréaliste, (Editions Somogy,1983) by José Pierre and Supériore Inconnu (1999) by Sarane Alexandrian. Both art historians were colleagues of André Breton, founder of the Surrealist Group.