Welcome to Numeral

Art Projects by John F. Simon, Jr.

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.

.... 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....