Michael Simpson (b. 1940, Dorset) lives and works in Wiltshire. He studied at Bournemouth College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. Simpson's paintings are characterized by a vocabulary of benches, steps, ladders, pulpits, and confessionals. Drawing on the visual traditions of early Flemish and Venetian painting, as well as Minimalism, he uses these architectural forms to consider faith and authority. Simpson has returned to these motifs across his practice for more than six decades. He was awarded the John Moores Painting Prize in 2016 and has exhibited solo presentations at Modern Art, London (2025, 2024); Holburne Museum, Bath (2023); GIANT, Bournemouth (2022); Arco, Madrid (2022); Nosbaum Reding, Luxembourg (2021), among others. Selected group exhibitions include Tara Downs, New York (2024); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (2021); Hayward Gallery, London (2019); Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna (2018).
His drawings were presented at American Art Catalogues, New York, in Drawing towards Painting (2025), alongside the publication of 101 Drawings: Selected Works 1974–2024, co-published by American Art Catalogues and Modern Art.
