Josh Simpson is a Melbourne-based artist whose work explores the threshold between fantasy and reality. Filled with visual tropes and clichés his work playfully comments on contemporary experience and his place within it. Imbued with whimsy and unease, his bold use of colour, gentle gradients and layered surfaces are both arresting and unsettling.

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Simpson holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from the University of Tasmania where he is a Master of Fine Arts candidate. In 2016 he was a resident artist for the Hound in the Hunt: Optical Aids in Art experiment and exhibition at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). He has been a finalist in a number of Australian art prizes including the Nillumbik Art Prize for Contemporary Art (2021), the John Leslie Art Prize (2020), the Bruny Island Art Prize (2016), the Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize (2016), the Agendo Art Prize (2015), and the Lloyd Rees Art Prize (2015). He was the winner of the ROI Art Prize People’s Choice Award (2019) and was highly commended in the Hornsby Art Prize (2014). Simpson is represented by Colville Gallery in Hobart and his work is held in collections across Australia.

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