Lorna Simpson
b. 1960
In 1990, Lorna Simpson became the first black woman to show her work in the Venice Biennale, a premier market for contemporary art. Lorna Simpson had grown to prominence in the 1980s with photographs such as, Guarded Conditions, Necklines, and Dividing Lines. Her usage of image and text in these early works makes her messages accessible to a wider audience than only African Americans. She might be best known for a set of photographs titled Five Day Forecast in which she uses five images of a woman with the days of the week labeled above each one and 10 conditions beginning with mis- below the photographs. Simpson deals with identity in a way that makes understanding and accepting identity a complex situation for those who identify and those trying to comprehend her message.