DAVID SIMPSON: PAINTINGS
January 10 - February 28, 2026
David Simpson
right: image courtesy of Jo Whaley
In winter the sun seems far away. The days are shorter, the nights colder, the days darkened by clouds and storms. In that darkness, we humans often seek light: the flicker of candle flame, the sparkle of slanting sun on snow, the glow of a hearth fire. Something in our nature turns us toward light like flowers tracking the sun from east to west. We have our own phototrophic natures.
Artists, too, follow the light. So much of the artistic exploration of the later 20th century was about paring back – striping work down to essential factors like color, space, and light. Particularly, light. Some used actual bulbs to paint with colored light. Some sought to attract light with gleaming surfaces, some used glass, playing with transparency. Artists, on their side, were testing out the possibilities and qualities of light much like scientists were doing with equations and experiments.
David Simpson is one of these artists who was captivated by light. His encounter with newly developed forms of metallic and interference acrylic paints in the late 1980’s were a gamechanger. The interference paints contain microscopic particles of mica coated in titanium dioxide. These particles, like a thousand thousand tiny mirrors, reflect and refract light from within the paint itself. So light, hitting even a thin coating of this paint, becomes caught within, sparking, bouncing, changing wavelength, and therefore color, as it moves through this thinnest of three-dimensional surfaces. Simpson worked for years to perfect his use of these paints, developing his own unique trowel for application, and a technique that involves up to thirty layers of paint. Within these multiple thin layers, the particles sit, waiting to bounce light back and forth between them.
The result are paintings that are never still, never finished becoming. They shine and glow, they shift and shimmer. The color you see facing you one moment will not be the same as the color you see when the sun shifts, or the angle of your view changes.
In Paintings, the viewer can view a collection of Interference paintings by Simpson from over the course of four decades. Ranging from the massive 6-foot diameter Tondos to the small 6x6-inch squares, these pieces shine and shift as the viewer moves around them.
The Tondos are large enough to feel almost like portals into a world of pure color. The depths and roil of purple in Violet Idyl contrast with the elegant golden orange of Cyprian Tondo. A piece like Rosa Reverso shifts dramatically from a subtle, dusty rose-mauve to a shining gold, while a piece like Over & Under Lavender seems to shift through every possible permutation of the color. The smaller works, move differently but still shift and shine remarkably. From the greeny undertones within the copper sheen of Yellow Copper 6 to the moody aqua of Ryder 6 or the frosted and shadowed orchid-magenta Small Universe, these pieces present a continuing evolution of colors.
The viewer moves along with this mysterious inner-shifting of light and shadow. We follow the glint, dive into the dark, ride along the tide of shifting hues. Our phototrophic selves move through the gallery like flowers tracking sun.
David Simpson: Paintings brings a gallery full of color and light into the dark of winter in Santa Fe.
- Michaela Kahn, PhD
Rosa Reverso, 2000, acrylic on canvas (interference pigment), 48 x 48 inches
Gold Conundrum, 2000, acrylic on canvas (interference pigment), 48 x 48 inches
Over & Under Lavender, 2012, acrylic on canvas (interference pigment), 48 x 48 inches
Dark Violet Tondo, 1989, acrylic on canvas over board, 60 x 60 inches
Small Favor, 2002, acrylic on canvas (interference pigment), 22 x 22 inches
Little Lava, 2003, acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment), 6 x 6 inches
Foggy Bottom, 1997, acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment), 6 x 6 inches
Yellow Copper 6, 1995, acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment), 6 x 6 inches
Little Gold Consort, 1997, acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment), 6 x 6 inches
Dragon Tales, 2003, acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment), 6 x 6 inches
Mink, 2011, acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment), 6 x 6 inches
Red 6, 1995, acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment), 6 x 6 inches
Hot White, 1997, acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment), 6 x 6 inches
True Primaries, #3 of 3, 2003, acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment), 6 x 6 inches
Cyprian Tondo, 1990, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 72 inches
Red Gold, 1990, acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12 inches
Maroond Maroon, 2015, acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment), 18 x 18 inches
Burnout, 2022, acrylic (with interference pigment) on wood panel, 12 x 9 inches
May Day, 2019, acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment), 34 x 34 inches
Rosa Reverso, 2000
acrylic on canvas (interference pigment)
48 x 48 in.
DS576
Click to inquire about this work
Gold Conundrum, 2000 acrylic on canvas (interference pigment)
48 x 48 in.
DS517
Click to inquire about this work
Over & Under Lavender, 2012
acrylic on canvas (interference pigment)
48 x 48 in.
DS575
Click to inquire about this work
Dark Violet Tondo, 1989
acrylic on canvas over board
60 x 60 in.
DS536
Click to inquire about this work
Small Favor, 2002 acrylic on canvas (interference pigment)
22 x 22 in.
DS0028
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SOLD
$35,000
Little Lava, 2003
acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment)
6 x 6 in.
DS603
Click to inquire about this work
Foggy Bottom, 1997
acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment)
6 x 6 in.
DS527
Click to inquire about this work
$5,000
$35,000
$65,000
Yellow Copper 6, 1995 acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment)
6 x 6 in.
DS531
Click to inquire about this work
Little Gold Consort, 1997 acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment) 6 x 6 in.
DS521
Click to inquire about this work
$5,000
$5,000
$5,000
$12,500
Dragon Tales, 2003
acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment)
6 x 6 in.
DS604
Click to inquire about this work
$5,000
Mink, 2011
acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment) 6 x 6 in.
DS518
Click to inquire about this work
Red 6, 1995
acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment) 6 x 6 in.
DS529
Click to inquire about this work
Hot White, 1997 acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment)
6 x 6 in.
DS299
Click to inquire about this work
True Primaries, #3 of 3, 2003
acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment) 6 x 6 in.
DS528
Click to inquire about this work
Cyprian Tondo, 1990
acrylic on canvas 72 x 72 in.
DS498
Click to inquire about this work
$5,000
$5,000
Red Gold, 1990
acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 in.
DS606
Click to inquire about this work
Maroond Maroon, 2015 acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment) 18 x 18 in.
DS580
Click to inquire about this work
$7,000
$8,500
$5,000
$5,000
Burnout, 2022
acrylic (with interference pigment) on wood panel 12 x 9 in.
DS546
Click to inquire about this work
$75,000
May Day, 2019 acrylic on canvas over board (interference pigment) 34 x 34 in.
DS476
Click to inquire about this work
$3,500
$18,000
Born: 1928 in Pasadena, CA
Lives & works in Berkeley, CA
Education:
1958 MFA, San Francisco State College
1956 BFA, California School of Fine Arts
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2026, 25, 24, 22 Charlotte Jackson FIne Art, Santa Fe, NM
2021 Studio La Vitta, Verona, IT
2020, 18, 16, 11 Haines Gallery, San Francicso, CA
2016, 15 Geukens & De Vil COntemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium
2013 University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, WY
2012, 07, 05 Gallery SOnja Roesch, Houston, TX
2009 Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2000 Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Santa Rosa, CA
1990 Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE
1978 The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
1967 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
1964, 63, 61 Robert Elkon Gallery, New York, NY
1960 Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
1959 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2014 Museo Fortuny, Venica, Italy
2010 Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
2009 Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Long Island, NY
2007, 05 Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2005 Cicic Museum, Linden, Germany
2000 US Berkely Art Museum, Berkeley, VA
The Panza di Biumo Collection, Varese, Italy
1995 M.H. de Young Memorial Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
1986 Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
1985 The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
1978 American Abstract Art Sincer 1945, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (traveling)
1964 Post-Painterly Abstraction, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (traveling)
1963
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1963 cont. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
1962 Tornio Museum of Modern Art, Italy
Fifty Calivornians, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1955 Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
M.H. de Young Memorial Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
Selected Collections:
Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
M.H. de Young Museum, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC
Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
La Jolla Museum of Art, La Jolla, CA
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, Il
Museum of Contemporary Art (MART), Roverato, Italy
Museo di Arte Cantonale, Lugano, Switzerland
Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Trento, Italy
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY
National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC
Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, CA
Panza Collection, Lugano, Switzerland
Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza, Biumo Superiore, Varese, Italy
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY
Reed College, Portland, OR
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Seattle Museum of Art, Seattle, WA
Shasta College, Redding, CA
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
