Rose B. Simpson, Daughter 1, 2023. Private Collection, Cambridge, MA. Photo by Addison Doty. © Rose B. Simpson. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Rose B. Simpson

The Tenderfeet
January 23 - August 15, 2027
Rose B. Simpson, Daughter 1, 2023. Private Collection, Cambridge, MA. Photo by Addison Doty. © Rose B. Simpson. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Introduction

Rose B. Simpson: The Tenderfeet is an expansive, dynamic installation featuring more than 30 sculptural reimaginings of the human form by mixed-media artist Rose B. Simpson (Kha’p’oe Ówîngeh; b. 1983; RISD MFA 2011, Ceramics). Known for sculptures that incorporate found materials and natural elements, Simpson explores themes of spirituality, family, and belonging. New hand-worked figures join larger-scale sculptures made throughout Simpson’s career, gathered here as a collective procession moving toward a single source of light.

This unique survey presents a narrative of artistic and communal growth: earlier works stand as guardians to newer “innocents,” who in turn model openness and the courage to change. During the exhibition, Simpson will stage a Transformance—a distinctive public procession that invites participants and viewers alike into an experience of spiritual change.

Curated by Dominic Molon, Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art.

Dominic Molon

RISD Museum is supported by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and with the generous partnership of the Rhode Island School of Design, its Board of Trustees, and Museum Governors.