FEATURED ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPDATES





Blossoming (2018)

This new software art edition is inspired by Paul Klee's 1934 painting 'Blossoming', enacting simple rules in complex ways to explore Klee's systematic, modernist approach to color and composition. Returning to his love of time based color studies.

This is an open edition offered for sale for US$3,000 on my website drawingyourownpath.com








Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018
Whitney Museum of American Art
September 28, 2018 - April 14, 2019



The exhibition features "works of conceptual, video, and computational art largely drawn from the Whitney's collection, this exhibition explores "programming" as the use of instructions, rules, and algorithms to generate images and objects. Expanding this genre of art beyond the digital to encompass paintings, drawings, sculptures, videos and large-scale installations, Programmed establishes connections among these instruction-based works to create a deeper understanding of their aesthetic and social impact." More information about the show.








Unfolding Object
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Unfolding Object was originally commissioned by the guggenheim museum and published in 2002. On November 19th, 2018, the museum released the newly restored version. This restoration was collaboration between the Guggenheim's conservators, NYU computer scientists and the artist and is documented on the museum's website at, www.guggenheim.org

Additional information about the artwork can be found at www.numeral.com.








Drawing Your Own Path:
33 Practices at the Crossroads
of Art and Meditation
Released November 2016

Visit my website drawingyourownpath.com for more information about my book and contemplative drawing.

Click here to order a signed copy that includes a small drawing on the title page.

Read Publishers Weekly's mention of my book in an article about conscious living.








Why Pioneer Software Artist John F. Simon, Jr., Starts Every Day with Meditation and Drawing
Fall 2016

A nice profile article written by Melissa Shaw-Smith for Tricycle, an award winning publication that shares Buddhist teachings and practices.






Endlessly Expanding
Solo Exhibitions at Sandra Gering Inc.

For this solo exhibition, I showed related work in two locations in New York City. Sandra Gering Inc. Gallery in Manhattan featured works on paper and carved wall hangings. Also exhibited by Sandra Gering, but at a facility in Long Island City, were considerably larger artworks measuring as much as 16 feet long and 9 feet high.

Endlessly Expanding
14 East 63rd St, NYC
Sept 22 - Dec 16, 2016
 Endlessly Expanding - large artworks
34-24 Hunters Point Avenue, Long Island City
Oct 16 - Nov 30, 2016, by appointment







Tech-né-Color
Sandra Gering Inc., NYC
April 14 - June 18, 2016

This group show includes my artwork Expanded Palette, 2016.
(more images from the show)








DATAStream: John F. Simon, Jr.
Moss Arts Center, VA
February 4 - April 17, 2016


(more images from the show)





From opening night of Intersections @ 5
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC:

John F. Simon Jr. describes his work Linear Moments as "a metaphor for the creative process.” The work was recently acquired by The Phillips Collection and is being exhibited in the current show, "Intersections @ 5", which runs from May 28 - October 25, 2015.

The daily drawings mentioned in the video can be found at www.iclock.com.







The Ever Present Sun
Edward Hopper House Art Center
June 20 - August 16, 2015

This solo show happens in the boyhood home of Edward Hopper. To honor Hopper's legacy and my love of his architectural exteriors, I created a freestanding sculptural work that echoes the brownstone buildings from the New York City neighborhoods where I lived. I will also exhibit related works dating from 1999 including software art, drawings, and bas relief paintings.
(more images from the show)





Acquired works Exhibited by The Phillips Collection

The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. acquired: Linear Moments, 2013, (shown below left) and Heat From the Core Raises Mountains and Opens Oceans, 2011, (shown below right).

The artworks are included in the exhibition, Intersections@5, which runs from May 28 - October 25th, 2015.





Streaming Museum Presents
The Artist's Creative Process: John F. Simon, Jr.





The development of Moment of Expansion, (2014) is followed from sketches to final piece.

Curator Xiaoying Juliette Yuan produces "an in-depth exploration of the practice of internationally known artists who reveal their creative process step by step and the relationship between their lives and their art."







Drawing a Path to Mindfullness
Buddhist Geeks Conference

October 2014

On October 18th I gave a talk about my long-standing search for the source of creativity, and how that search has led me to explore a contemplative Buddhist practice. The conference was held by the Buddhist Geeks in Boulder, Colorado.
(more information and a video of my talk)








Moment of Escape
Reviewed in World Sculpture News
Spring 2014

"The trajectory of John F. Simon's works is a brilliant apotheosis of how Modernist tradition can be elevated to another level, perhaps, a level that is initially blithely hidden or concealed from view, before it finally becomes apparent in the act of seeing. Such aesthetic maneuvers would seem to be what Modernism at its best tried to achieve. Here Simon offers a way to fulfill Modernism's earlier expectations and thus bring it into the future of advanced art." - Robert C. Morgan

'John F. Simon, Jr.' World Sculpture News, Spring 2014





//the_ART_of_DATA

Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art
April 24 - July 06, 2014

Swarms, 2002 (pictured here) and Every Icon will be on view at BMOCA. "The exhibition presents the work of artists who are pioneers in developing the visual language that makes data captivating, expressive and meaningful." More information about the show can be found at the museum's website: www.bmoca.org





Moment of Escape
Reviewed in ARTnews
February 2014

"The implied message in these pieces is simple enough: think outside the box (or frame). But the satisfaction to be derived from the works is in the form more than the conceit -- a means of escape." - Kiki Turner

'John F. Simon, Jr.' ARTnews, February 2014





Moment of Escape

December 12, 2013 - February 8, 2014
Sandra Gering Inc., NYC


Here are some pictures of new work included in my Solo show at Sandra Gering Inc on East 63rd Street in Manhattan. The show includes eight new pieces and is the first show at Sandra Gering's new gallery location. (more images and information about the show)






December 1, 2013

Simon Says: Outside the Lines

"Boundary-pushing pieces at The Phillips Collection from John F. Simon Jr.'s new four-part installation, Intersections, reveal the merging of old and new artistic traditions, along with how contemporary spaces successfully weave together disparate collections. Simon's multimedia creations - including drawing, computer-generated fabrication and software - also embrace the notion that wandering through galleries should deliver moments of serendipity. Moreover, what we seek is not always what we find. And in the world of modern art, you won't find a loftier achievement."
- Michael McCarthy





Moment Of Escape
Sandra Gering Inc.
Opening December 12, 2013,
Noon - 7pm




14 East 63rd Street
Between Madison and 5th Avenue, NYC





iClock
Celebrates its 5th Anniversary
October 17, 2013

My "Divination Drawings" are a years-long practice of daily hand drawings which I use to meditate, but also as source material for larger works. Drawings from the Divination series begin intuitively; a pencil is guided by the unconscious thoughts and emotions of that day. The drawings are shared daily through my website iclock.com. When an image persists in these drawings, I translate it into something larger and more dimensional, fabricating it in diverse media such as: software, computers, paint, pencil, wood, HDU, formica, and linoleum often using computer controlled fabrication tools like a laser cutter and CNC router. If you subscribe to iClock I will email you a drawing every day.




Points, Lines, and Colors, in Succession
The Phillips Collection
Washington, D.C.
October 17, 2013 - February 9, 2014


My show at The Phillips Collection opened on October 17th, 2013, with an artist's talk at the museum. Here's a picture of Moment of Release, finished and installed for the exhibition. It is one of several pieces, some dating as far back as 2004, exhibited as part of the museum's Intersections program. Endless Bounty can be seen in the background while I'm giving my talk in the gallery. Here is some more information about the exhibition as well as some candid photos from the installation and artist's talk.





Moment of Release
Opening at The Phillips Collection
Oct 17th, 2013, 6:30pm


Here I am working in my studio on Moment of Release, a new artwork that will be included in my exhibition at The Phillips Collection opening this October. Moment of Release is an enlargement of my daily drawing from 12.4.2012. At that time I was working through variations of a symbol I call an 'expansion'; an image that initiates inside a frame and then grows to exceed the bounds of that frame. The symbol felt like a good metaphor for both unchecked industrial expansion and the unlimited potential of my own thoughts. Its installation at The Phillips Collection will be the premiere for Moment of Release and for all the new 3D style work I'll be showing this fall in NYC. [detail shot]







Solo Exhibition at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum - 2012

Here's an installation shot of my solo exhibit at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum in Baton Rouge. The show, which ran for four months in 2012 featured works from 1996 to 2011 including my early art appliances, bas reliefs, large cabinet pieces, and drawings. Here are some more images from the show.




Mutual Core
Mobile App for Björk's Biophilia - 2011

Mutual Core is a music app for Björk's Biophilia album.
Versions of the app are available for purchase for the iPhone or Android.







Innerhole
at Gering & López Gallery, NYC - 2010

This is a picture of Reverie one of fourteen new pieces included in my solo exhibition at Gering & López Gallery in 2010. All of the works are derived from my sketches posted on my drawing site www.iclock.com
Here are some more images from the show.






My show at the Maramotti Collection was reviewed in ArtForum - Summer 2009

A review of the show is out. Cathryn Drake gave a terrific write up of the work. She really gets it. She understands the irony that in order to see the software's beauty you have to encounter the object in person. I have posted a pdf of the review. In the last paragraph she mentions a new web project of mine where I regularly post 'divination drawings' - the link to that is here.








Maramotti Collection - March 2009

I just opened a terrific show at the Maramotti Collection in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The curator was Mario Diacono and he was a joy to work with. The Maramotti Collection has supported my work for ten years and has really made a difference in my professional practice. The new work in the show is called 'Visions'. It was commissioned by the collection and is featured the cover of the catalog.

I have posted some images of the opening here.








Art in America Review - April 2008

We were very lucky to get a wonderful review in the April 2008 issue of Art in America. It was written by Nancy Princenthal - one of my all time favorites - so that was doubly good. Click here to read the review.








John F. Simon Jr.
Flip
2007
Gering & López Gallery

A mention in ArtNet...

.... reminded me of an exhibition at Gering & López last fall, a selection of seven elaborate cabinets crafted by John F. Simon Jr. to house and present his custom-designed computer codes -- something utterly abstract -- that manifest as ever-changing, tumbling abstract patterns on LCD screens. Suggesting Mid-Century Moderne, the cabinets are multicolored and inscribed with elaborate, laser-cut decorations. What 's more, each cabinet represents a different chakra, and embodies a specific kind of energy.

As someone who came of age during the Conceptual Art era, my first impulse was that all the additional meanings that Simon had layered onto his "pure" code were extraneous. "Everything is code," the artist explained. "And there are lots and lots of codes." He won me over when he added the one inspiration for his cabinets were the "home entertainment centers" that now house digital content within our analog living rooms and dens.

The high design of Simon's work is very much in line with the sensibility animating the 2008 Whitney Biennial, which is about décor more than anything else. Everything in the show is shiny or polychromed or naturalistically textured, impeccably laid out and neatly aligned....


March 12, 2008 Update : I knew Walter Robinson of ArtNet had visited the Winds show and I hoped he would write something about it but I waited all fall and nothing appeared. Then last Saturday I attended the fancy champagne brunch Sandra threw for the terrific new Jane Simpson show. As I was gulping coffee and stuffing in the chocolate croissant I saw Walter and decided to take a chance. "I didn't write anything all fall" he said "I have a stack of notes." I felt better about the whole thing - not to mention the coffee - and chatted with him about all sorts of art topics. Imagine my surprise this week when he mentioned my show alongside Jane Simpson and the Whitney Biennial. I really believe in this work and it felt so good to read what he had to say. His excerpt is above and the whole ArtNet news article is here. Thanks Walter.