Lorna Simpson was born in Brooklyn, New York. She studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography, as well as the University of California, San Diego where she completed her Master of Fine Arts. Simpson came to prominence with her pioneering approach to conceptual photography. Her early work – particularly her striking juxtapositions of text and staged images – raised questions about the nature of representation, identity, gender, race and history that continue to drive the artist’s expanding and multi-disciplinary practice today.