August-A Study , wood frame & raw canvas, 8ft x 9ft x 3ft, 2010 A durational performance and installation. Short video documentary – http://www.donisilversimons.com/media/august-a-study.asp video In “August: A Study,” Silver Simons embarks on a journey that is both an investigation of and a response to the core essence of the month. The gradual evisceration of the fabric is freed from its woven alignment; the threads discover new paths, revealing alternative truths in space and time.Omer 5769 – An Istallation and Performance,Multimedia-stretched canvas,metal base, acrylic, 2009-2011 Video documentary- http://www.donisilversimons.com/media/donivideo.asp Photo documentary – http://www.donisilversimons.com/media/photodocumentary.asp In 2009, I premiered Omer 5769, a durational performance inspired by the Omer, a 7-week ritual characterized by a daily oral tally. Nine participants engaged in a silent performance examining the dissolution of time and referencing the Omer and counting as a mechanism to return to ones source. In 2011, I debuted Omer 5769 – An Installation/A Performance, a film documenting the performance, at The American Film Institute (AFI) for the Washington DC Jewish Film Festival.Whisper Pitch, an interactive piece utilizing a room 8ft x 20ft x 10ft, paper 5ft x 30ft, the public, various drawing instruments, a chair, and a notebook, 2012 video of the study: http://www.donisilversimons.com/media/whisper-pitch.asp Whisper Pitch emerges from a continuum of performance, conceptual and spatial art traditions and is a reprise of a 1976 private, undocumented performance. Silver Simons’ introduction of contextual parameters of time, space, body movement and human interaction to create a safe refuge or haven for human reflection and interaction may also be perceived as building upon the legacy of automatic drawing and relational aesthetics.
Doni Silver Simons, a Los Angeles based multi-media artist, graduated from Wayne State University with an MFA in drawing and from the University of Pittsburgh with bachelor in Studio Arts. Silver Simons was born in Springfield, MA, in 1947. Silver Simons has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows in galleries and museums in the USA and Israel (Detroit Institute of Art, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art-Los Angeles, Mishkan le’ Omanut, Ein Harod).
Solo Exhibits
2013 De-noue-ment (n), Shulamit Gallery, Venice, CA 2011 It’s About Time …, Slutzky Art Gallery, Irvine, CA 2010 August: Doni Silver Simons, new paintings and performance, Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Santa Monica,CA 2009 Marked, featuring Omer 5769 An Installation/A Performance, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, CA
Group Shows
2013 Jerusalem Biennale, Wolfson Museum, Jerusalem Sacred Words, Sacred Texts, AJU, Los Angeles, CA Incognito, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA 2012 Matronita: Jewish Feminist Art, Mishkan Le’Omanut,EinHarod FRESH 2012, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles,CA
Silver Simons is a recipient of the Santa Monica Fellowship Projects Grant (2014); Works in Public Places Project, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art and the City of Los Angeles (1978);and was an invited artist for the Michigan Workshop of Fine Prints, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and Michigan Council of Arts (1976).
Silver Simons is represented in Southern California by Shulamit Gallery, Venice ,CA.
