09/11/2026
SWIPE >> Go check out these amazing sculptures that just hit the floor at our ESTATE FURNITURE STORE at Vinteige! location at Vinteige !
If you have any questions or would like additional photos (or photos of more of this artists work) please DM ESTATE FURNITURE STORE at Vinteige! or text Rick Hudson at 1-510-219-9644.
About the artist:
Larry Ronald “Ron” Simmons (1948–2026) was an American sculptor whose multi-decade career bridged the mid-century California craft movement with contemporary, large-scale abstraction. Born in Cato, Oklahoma, and raised in Madera, California, Simmons developed a lifelong passion for sculpture in his youth. His formal trajectory began in Los Angeles at the historic Metlox Pottery Company, before a pivotal move to the San Francisco Bay Area at age 19.
Operating from studios in San Francisco, Mill Valley, and Sausalito—where he studied at the Sausalito Art Center—Simmons mastered ceramics, sterling silver, and jewelry. His early brilliance was solidified in 1972 when he secured First Prize at the Sausalito Art Fair. As a prominent figure in the 1970s Bay Area art scene alongside contemporaries like Lois Anderson, his counterculture influence was canonized under his moniker “Rat Soup” in the iconic 1974 book Native Funk & Flash (featuring his ceramic masterwork, Woman 1, pages 40–41). This prolific era garnered high-profile patronage, including legendary disc jockey Tom Donahue, a bespoke eyewear commission for rock icon Elton John, and the placement of numerous large-scale ceramics entirely into private collections.
By the 1980s, Simmons shifted exclusively to structural sculpture, pioneering a sophisticated material vocabulary of steel, resin, and epoxies elevated by leafing, anodized metals, and chemical patinas. These commanding, monumental works typically stand between 5 to 12 feet in height. In the early 1990s, he anchored his practice in a permanent, mixed-use studio in Oakland, California. Simmons’ enduring work received First Prize at the Marin Art Fair (2018) and the prestigious San Diego Museum of Art Artists’ Guild Prize (2024), culminating in his active membership with the Guild until his passing.
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