The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present "Lorna Simpson: Source Notes" from May 19 to November 2, 2025, the first museum survey dedicated entirely to the New York-based artist's painting practice. Featuring over 30 works, the exhibition traces Simpson's shift from conceptual photography to paintings that explore gender, race, identity, and history, including pieces from her 2015 Venice Biennale debut and her "Special Characters" series, alongside recent sculptures and collages. The show is funded by the Ford Foundation and supported by Jim and Irene Karp and John and Amy Griffin.
This exhibition matters because it marks a significant institutional recognition of Simpson's evolution as a painter, highlighting a decade of work that challenges traditional boundaries of the medium. Simpson, a pioneering conceptual photographer since the 1980s, uses found imagery from vintage magazines and archives to create layered, screen-printed collages that blur figuration and abstraction. By focusing on her painting, The Met underscores her enduring influence on contemporary art and her continued relevance in probing how images construct meaning in culture.