Gregg
Simpson
was born in Ottawa in 1947, but moved immediately to the west coast
with his family. He is one of two sons of pioneering Modernist architect,
D.C. Simpson and concert soprano, Ferne Cairns. His career began during
the 1960's when he was also involved in launching multi-media events
and building his complimentary career as a noted jazz drummer.
He began exhibiting at Vancouver's Bau-xi Gallery in group and
three person shows. Following this period, Simpson became increasingly
interested in the occult subjects of alchemy, mythology and other
arcane subjects such as Atlantis. In 1971, supported by a Canada
Council grant and a letter of introduction from William Rubin of
the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Simpson went to Paris and
eventually organized the first European touring exhibition of west
coast art. This exhibition, entitled Canadian West Coast Hermetics,
was seen in Paris by French art historian, Jose Pierre who also
saw and wrote about subsequent exhibitions during the 1970's that
featured the artist and his colleagues in the West Coast Surrealist
group. Simpson has continued to be published and to exhibit internationally
with both the neo-surrealists and the Paris-based PHASES Movement.
Gregg Simpson has been written about in such publications as Vie
Des Arts (Montreal), Vanguard Magazine (Vancouver), Art Magazine
(Toronto) and TerzoOcchio (Bologna, Italy). His work has been collected
by public galleries and universities, and represented in corporate
and private collections in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Asia and South
America.
