Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning: Danny Simmons: Early Days & Latter Days

On the occassion of its 50th anniversary, The Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning held a retrospective for Jamaica-born artist Danny Simmons, entitled Early Days & Latter Days. Simmons returned to JCAL, where he had his first exhibition, to present both early works and those completed during a recent residency at the Center. 

Simmons commented to the Queens Daily Eagle, "To be coming home with a retrospective exhibition and an exhibition of completely new work is a grand high honor ... To be recognized at the 50th anniversary of JCAL is a fantastic benchmark for my career in the arts, a very special honor which I'm truly grateful to receive."

Interspersed among Simmons' paintings were several traditional African objects. Establishing a visual dialogue with the paintings on view, sculptural power figures and masks conveyed a spiritual resonance between the artist's Neo-African Abstract Expressionist motifs and the ancestral histories they honor.