
Don Simon uses colored pencils and a surrealistic style to
speak about the conflict between nature and industry. He was awarded a
prestigious New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship in 2008,
and a Full Artist Fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center the same year.
His work has appeared in solo and group shows, in galleries and museums
across the country and in Europe including Verge - The Bridge Art Fair
Berlin 08, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, the L.A. Art Show, and
Windham Fine Arts, Windham, NY. His piece Cows On Garbage 2 won the
Purchase Award at the 2005 Works On Paper show at the Perkins Center for
the Arts, Moorestown, NJ, and was acquired by the Jersey City Museum for
their permanent collection. The work was on display in 2007 as part of the
Perspectives II: Then and Now exhibition.
In addition, his work has twice been selected for publication in New
American Paintings - once in 2006, curated by Alex Baker from the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; and again in 2007 curated by
Stephen Bennet Phillips from the Phillips Collection in Washington,
D.C. Mr. Phillips singled out his piece, The River II calling it,
"...a tour de force of drawing." He has also been published as an
Emerging Artist of 2006 in Direct Art magazine, and in the
ArtPeriscope Calendar, curated and published for European distribution
out of Czestochowa, Poland.
Don was born in Madison, NJ in 1972. After earning a BFA at Syracuse
University he entered a ten year career as an Art Director in Philadelphia
advertising. In 2004 he walked away from advertising to pursue art full time.