OCEANSIDE — Although Ving Simpson has since moved away from his coastal home to the wild of Wyoming, he has left a lasting impression on the community’s art world, including a new exhibit at the Oceanside Museum of Art showcasing decades of pieces he’s made here.
Simpson’s art exhibit, titled “Inside Out,” features sculptures and paintings he created in his Oceanside art studio for nearly 30 years.
His sculptures are made from traditional and non-traditional materials, including silver, bronze, wood, metal, tar paper, found objects and glazed and unglazed clay bodies.
Select paintings of Simpson’s will also be on display in the exhibit. According to the museum, the paintings illustrate his explorations into his perceptions of reality – including a series of large banners in the museum’s Grand Stairwell that explore artistic interpretations of water as liquid, gas and solid.
Simpson’s first painting on canvas, “Dancing Nuns,” from 1994, will pay homage to the complexities of interpersonal relationships and how they inspire creativity.
Through his work, Simpson attempts to understand the mysteries of reality. As an artist with a science background, his artwork often includes science, art history and personal mythology themes.
“I feel that my art is really an internal personal process of discovery and exploring what I consider to be the nature of existence,” Simpson said. “It’s really combining my thought processes of science and art – and I’ve been trying to discover what art really is for me.”
Simpson has spent the last 30 years of his life seriously pursuing art. He has had numerous other exhibitions showcasing his art, one more recently in the Kruglak Gallery at MiraCosta College.
Beyond spending his time in Oceanside as an artist, he was also a board member of the museum’s exhibitions committee for several years.
Though Simpson has moved far away from the Southern California beach town, his impression remains in the form of his unique art.
Curated by Valle Roberto, “Inside Out” debuts on Feb. 17 and runs until May 12 at the Oceanside Museum of Art.
The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, and is closed Monday and Tuesday.
