CCA Santa Fe

Marcellin Simard

Center for Contemporary Arts

spector ripps project space

Nov. 6th – Jan 10th

Opening Reception Friday Nov. 6th 5 - 8pm

Persistence of Vision

Persistence of Vision, a solo exhibition by Marcellin

Simard in the spector ripps project space, will

feature paintings, sculpture, and mixed-media

installation. Transcending the barriers and constraints

of daily reality, Simard conjures a hallucinatory and

vertiginous world where nightmare fades to dream,

children are warrior-saviors, and the fantastic is

animated. Simard’s work treads a fine line of magic

between peril and salvation.

Simard combines the people and situations of his

waking life with deep subconscious explorations to

create allegorical paintings. These contemporary fables

are comprised of family and friends who weave stories

alongside timeless icons: priestesses, demons, and

warriors. His sculptures are the stuff of shadow and

fantasy—a sinister black viper with gnashing teeth, a

fifteen-foot monster dipping deep below the gallery

floor, black crows that transform to white doves.

As described by CCA Director Lea Rekow: “I read

this work as the phenomenology of what’s presenting

itself in Marcellin’s life. Belief creates existence. The

inner creates the outer…That’s one of the reasons the

imagery in Marcellin’s work is so strong. His images

are the language of not his ‘real’—but of his truth.”

Marcellin Simard currently lives and works in Santa Fe,

as an artist, practicing cardiologist, and father of three

young children. Simard moved to Santa Fe from Los

Angeles, where, in addition to his careers as artist

and physician, he took courses to received an MFA.

Simard recently had a solo exhibition at Linda Durham

Contemporary Art.

center