Sylvia Salazar Simpson

Sylvia Salazar Simpson (born 1939) is an installation and book artist as well as a photographer. Born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she was raised in Mexico City, Mexico. In the mid-1960s, upon her arrival to Los Angeles, she began her trajectory toward the arts. Her works deal with social commentary on women and the female body, as well as the use of organic and perishable items.

Personal life Salazar Simpson was born to Veneranda Emanuela Gutierrez. She married Thomas Jeremy Simpson, a farm broker, in 1965. She is also a mother of two daughters. in nursing but due to her naturalization being in the US, she did not receive a degree. In the 1960s, after her return to Los Angeles she began studying at Otis College of Art and Design from 1966 to 1968.

Exhibitions Southern California Small Images Show, Los Angeles State College, (1974). LAMEXOD, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, California, (1983). Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1975, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (Sep 15, 2017 - Dec 31, 2017) Radical Women. Latin American Art, 1960–1985, Brooklyn Museum, New York City, New York (April 13, 2018 – July 22, 2018) Mulheres radicais: arte latino-americana 1960–1985, Pinacoteca do Estado do São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil (18 Aug 2018 – 19 Nov 2018)

Woman's Building Women and the Printing Arts is a catalog that carries different mediums in the form of books, postcards, and posters all created through printing technology. The work was exhibited during January 11 – February 1, 1975, at the Woman's Building in Los Angeles. Sylvia Salazar Simpson shows up within the catalog as one of those works.

Works

Books Sylvia Salazar Simpson (1970) – photographs of the artist with different items wrapped in her hair. Eggs Verbal A/Z (1973) - photo book of cracked eggs corresponding in some way with each letter of the alphabet. Blue Sugar Book (1997)- moistened layers of toilet paper seeped in sugar, which she described as a reminder of the lithium she took for her manic depressive disorder.

Photography Antes/Before (Self Portrait) (1981)- self portrait of the artist with worms and flowers wrapped on her head and hair. Untitled (1993) - series of pictures, including food materials, as well as more organic materials that were taken before the fires in Malibu. Honey's Room (1974) – fishing leader tied diagonally across a room, brushed with a mixture of honey and sugar caramel. This was largely inspired in hopes to attract ants to all the sugar materials, but that did not happen. Shoe Polish (1974) – black and white photographs of a child buttering her shoes with butter. Salazar Simpson shares her choosing in this material because it forces the viewer to smell and smelling fixates most into memory.

Salazar Simpson describes her work as viscous, which was realized after having seen her daughters throwing eggs into the ground, searching for chicks.

Recognition/awards In 1991, Salazar Simpson was awarded as the winning design for the Venice Art Walk T-shirt.

Collections Untitled [19 photos of model wearing headdresses constructed of various food items.] – Arts Library Cage Artists' Books (UCLA) Imitations – Arts Library Cage Artists' Books (UCLA) Eggs verbal : A/Z – Arts Library Cage Artists' Books (UCLA) LA Woman Narrations – UCSD Collection Franklin Furnace Archive, New York Special Collections, Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles Then No One Knows #25, color photograph, Ad&A Museum, UCSB, Gift of Phyllis Plous