Lorna Simpson in Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Museum of Art welcomes hometown girl Lorna Simpson, whose exhibition Gathered opens January 28. Organized by Catherine Morris, curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, the exhibition, on view through August 21, includes three bodies of work, among them May June July August 57/09, which is being shown in its entirety for the first time.

This series, one of the few times the artist has put herself into her own work, is based on a large cache of amateur photographs Simpson found of pictures of the same woman, taken in 1957 in Los Angeles, in various cheesecake poses. They bring to mind Eugene von Bruenchenhein's wonderfully awkward photographs of his wife, Marie, posing like a pin-up girl. Simpson, however, has paired the original photographs with carefully staged re-creations starring herself. “They're very smart, very considered examinations of how photographs convey meaning,” says Catherine Morris, adding, “They're quirky in their complete banality.”

Another series on view also involves found photographs – in this case, of photo booth portraits. The photo booth was an opportunity for people without other means to have their pictures taken, says Morris, adding, “They're almost voyeuristic.” Simpson's work regularly deals with race as well as with the idea of repetition, found cultural artifacts, and the way history is constantly being reinterpreted. Many of these photo booth pictures were taken during the Jim Crow era, observes Morris, during the great migration of black Americans northward. They may have been taken to send back to family members; but in the end, their purpose remains a mystery.

Simpson's video work Easy to Remember (2001) is the third piece on view, showing a grid of lips humming a John Coltrane version of a famous Rodgers and Hart song. “It's 15 different people all humming the same song, but they all have slightly different memories of it,” says Morris, “It's about both collective and individual memory.”