About this episode

Lorna Simpson discusses her artistic influences and the complexities of representation in her work.

Lorna Simpson talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Simpson was born in Brooklyn, New York, 1960. Her conceptual approach to photography, and image-making more widely, reflects a desire to subvert the conventional framing of different forms of identity. From her early photo-text works to her recent paintings using found images, Lorna has explored the complexity of representation, and the visual and textual languages with which it is constructed. While she is deeply engaged with societal issues and historical inequities, and with the camera’s time-honoured role as a documentary instrument, she blurs boundaries between reality and fiction, between witnessing and storytelling. The result is a practice that is precise and yet elusive, spare and yet capacious. She discusses how she achieves a balance between refusal and engagement to allow space for the viewer to enter her work. She talks about the role of the archive and history and how she navigates the use of existing images through various media. She reflects on her constant need to test herself…

People in this episode

Host: Ben Luke

Guest: Lorna Simpson

Topics covered

• artistic influences
• identity representation
• photography
• cultural experiences
• societal issues
• historical inequities
• image-making

Keywords

• Lorna Simpson
• photography
• identity
• art
• cultural influences
• representation
• image-making
• societal issues
• historical context

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Metropolitan Museum of Art

More episodes of A brush with...

• A brush with... Lisa Yuskavage · June 9, 2026 · 1h 7m
• A brush with… Sanya Kantarovsky · April 21, 2026 · 1h 12m
• A brush with... Hurvin Anderson · April 14, 2026 · 48 min
• A brush with... Danh Vo · March 3, 2026 · 60 min
• A brush with... Veronica Ryan · February 24, 2026 · 1h 6m
• A brush with... Catherine Opie · February 17, 2026 · 1h 14m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the A brush with... podcast page.