James Harris Gallery is pleased to present new work by Todd Simeone. In renewing a consistent theme throughout art history, Simeone’s latest body of work highlights the artist’s interest in the way a picture can also be an object in and of itself, not simply a representation of something. By appropriating familiar or typical images – such as Federal Express boxes, dice, and wallpaper – and then digitally or physically manipulating these images, the artist is able to both emphasize and question what is concrete in the world around him.

His Express Box (extra large - smashed flat), 2006 for example is a photograph of a FedEx shipping box. Flattened and then altered so that almost all of the logo and other identifying insignia are removed, Simeone exposes the often overlooked arrow that is buried between the “e” and the “x” in the logo. In removing the other signifiers that reference the international shipping company, Simeone creates a cardboard sign of sorts, telling us which way to go or to look or to see.

Artists have long grappled with the subject that Simeone tackles, playing with the difference between rationalism and logic, between memory and imagination, and even with the difference between what we see and what we remember. Where Simeone diverges and updates on this venerable subject is in manipulating both his tools and his subject matter so as to create new and seamless objects without offering absolute answers.

This is not the portrait of an artist who subscribes to some utopian version of art that might allow him to escape the boundaries of metaphysics. Simeone does not want for these objects to supersede their role as art objects. Rather, through various techniques and not without humor, Simeone accentuates the foundations of something familiar - wallpaper is wallpaper, a sign is a sign – and plays with the difference between what is certain and what is uncertain about these objects.

This exhibition has been made possible in part due to help from Artist Trust.

Six Ways to Roll Seven, 2006 Suite of 6 images Ultrachrome inkjet prints Edition of 3 Each: 14" x 14"
#1 - 1 and 6	#2 - 3 and 4	#3 - 2 and 5
#4 - 4 and 3	#5 - 5 and 2	#6 - 6 and 1