Beginning February 6, 2016, the Addison Gallery of American Art, located on the campus of Phillips Academy, will present Laurie Simmons: In and Around the House. The exhibition celebrates the Addison’s recent acquisition of a complete set of Simmons’s seminal series of photographs of the same name. Created by the artist from 1976–1978 at the threshold of her career, the 59 black-and-white prints depict female dolls performing the stereotypical chores of a 1950s housewife in dollhouse interiors constructed by the artist. Describing these poignant and melancholy images, Simmons has said, “I was simply trying to recreate a feeling, a mood . . . a sense of the fifties that I knew was both beautiful and lethal at the same time.” With this series, Simmons became one of the first of a generation of artists to use set-up photography to create images with intensely psychological subtexts and forcefully feminist content, and in doing so, pushed the boundaries of photography into the realm of conceptual art. The exhibition will be on display at the Addison through April 17, 2016.

“With this acquisition the Addison becomes the only art museum in the United States to own a complete set of this groundbreaking series,” said Allison Kemmerer, Mead Curator of Photography and Curator of Contemporary Art. “In addition to being a transformative addition to the museum’s photography holdings, In and Around the House offers a rare glimpse into the artist’s development, as these early images contain what became recurring subjects throughout her subsequent career—themes of artifice and fiction, gender and identity, memory and nostalgia. As a window on the evolution of this significant artist’s development and an interpretation of America at a specific period in time, it will be an invaluable contribution to the teaching mission of the museum.”

Two additional permanent collection exhibitions will accompany the presentation of the Simmons portfolio. Further exploring the ideas of “house” and “home” contained in Laurie Simmons’s work, Walls and Beams, Rooms and Dreams: Images of Home assembles and juxtaposes historic and contemporary paintings, prints, photographs, and drawings by artists as diverse as Oscar Bluemner, William Christenberry, Thomas Dewing, Walker Evans, Kerry James Marshall, John Singer Sargent, and Francesca Woodman, that depict the multiple types of dwellings that humans have constructed for themselves, the many ways in which those spaces are inhabited, and the wide range of emotions and associations attached to them. Walls and Beams, Rooms and Dreams runs from January 23 through July 31, 2016.

One Thing Leads to Another…Selections from the Permanent Collection is a sequential gathering of objects both historic and contemporary from the Addison’s collection, chosen to provoke conversation and enhance understanding of particular topics, from masquerade and playacting, to the interplay of art and dance, the figure in motion, and images of the female form. Included in this show are works by artists such as Nick Cave, Hollis Frampton, John Graham, Eadweard Muybridge, Cindy Sherman, and Abbott Thayer. The exhibition will be on view January 30 through March 20, 2016.

In celebration of the new season, the Addison invites the public to attend an opening reception on Friday, February 5, from 6:00–8:00 p.m. at the museum. The event is free. For information, please visit www.addisongallery.org or call 978-749-4015.

The Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, is open to the public from Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Sunday 1:00–5:00 p.m.  The Gallery is closed on Monday. Admission to all exhibitions and events is free. The Addison Gallery also offers free education programs for teachers and groups. For more information, call 978-749-4015, or visit the website at www.addisongallery.org.