Laurie Simmons

Laurie Simmons is a photographer and filmmaker based in New York who earned a BFA from the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, in 1971. Simmons orchestrates photographs and films using paper dolls, finger puppets, ventriloquist dummies, and costumed dancers as "living objects," creating a dollhouse world infused with nostalgia and colored by adult memories, longings, and regrets.

Her work combines psychological, political, and conceptual approaches to art-making, transforming photography's tendency to objectify people, particularly women, into a sustained critique of the medium. Exploring childhood memories and media constructions of gender roles, Simmons's photographs exude an eerie, dreamlike quality. While her works may initially appear whimsical, there's a disquieting aspect to Simmons's child's play, as her characters grapple with identity in an environment where the value placed on consumption, designer objects, and domestic space is inflated to absurd proportions. Simmons ventured into filmmaking with her first film, "The Music of Regret" (2006), extending her photographic practice to performance and incorporating musicians, puppeteers, Alvin Ailey dancers, cinematographer Ed Lachman, and actress Meryl Streep.

Throughout her career, Simmons has garnered numerous awards, including the Roy Lichtenstein Residency in the Visual Arts at the American Academy in Rome (2005) and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1997) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1984). Her major exhibitions include showcases at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006); Baltimore Museum of Art (1997); San Jose Museum of Art, California (1990); and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1987). Additionally, she has participated in two Whitney Biennial exhibitions (1985, 1991).