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Northern Illinois University

NIU Office of Public Affairs


News Release

Contact: Mark McGowan, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-9472

January 14, 2005

World renowned artist Tommy Simpson
returns to alma mater NIU for exhibition

DeKalb — If you were one of the millions of Americans who in 2002 mailed your holiday cards with the red stamps picturing unique and happy snowmen, check for leftovers.

The stamps are the work of Tommy Simpson, a 1962 Northern Illinois University alum who this week makes his first return to campus since his graduation with a bachelor’s degree in art education.

Now a world renowned artist for four decades, Simpson will attend a 5 p.m. Thursday reception for his first exhibition in the NIU School of Art’s Jack Olson Gallery and give a lecture at 6 p.m. He also will spend Wednesday working with students of sculpture.

And maybe, hints Acting Coordinator Ann O’Brien, Simpson will autograph visitors’ snowmen stamps and nudge their worth beyond 37 cents.

“This is our biggest show of the year,” O’Brien says. “Tommy just had a show in New York City on Madison Avenue and 57th in Manhattan at the Leo Kaplan Modern gallery.”

According to Time Warner Bookmark, Simpson is “a woodworker, sculptor, furniture maker, painter and poet acclaimed for his witty and joyous interpretations of Americana” and “a true original in the art world.”

The Elgin native’s “colorful and enigmatic” work is “equal parts two-dimensional paintings, painted sculpture and furniture,” praises The Furniture Society. “The furniture, as one might expect, appears to be an amalgamation of his sculpture and paintings, as it includes painted design and applied sculptural elements. The furniture is functional, to be sure, but emotional and symbolic meanings clearly are Simpson’s dominant concerns.”

His works have been exhibited across the United States and the world – including Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden and Turkey – and many pieces are in permanent collections at museums such as the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the American Craft Museum in New York City.

The exhibition coming to NIU contains 27 pieces, about half of which are paintings. The other half is furniture, including a rug, chairs, cabinets, clocks, coffee tables and ladders.

For students, Simpson’s visit and exhibition will offer a glimpse into what their own futures could hold.

“He wants to explain working as a professional artist,” O’Brien says. “He wants to talk about how he has diversified his art in order to survive as a working artist.”

The exhibit is open until Friday, Feb. 4. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call (815) 753-4521.

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