Danny Simmons

Daniel "Danny" Simmons Jr. is a Neo-African abstract expressionist painter, a published author, poet and philanthropist. He is the older brother of hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons and rapper Joseph Simmons ("Reverend Run" of Run–D.M.C.). He is the co-founder and Chairman of Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, which provides disadvantaged urban teenage years with arts permission and education. As portion of Rush Philanthropic, Simmons plus founded Rush Arts Gallery and soon thereafter converted portion of his loft in Brooklyn into the Corridor Gallery. Both galleries meet the expense of exhibition opportunities to to come and mid-career artists who complete not have classified ad representation through galleries or private dealers. Along similar to his brother Russell, Simmons received Def Poetry Jam, which has enjoyed long-running success upon HBO. In 2004, Simmons published Three Days As the Crow Flies, a fictional account of the 1980s New York art scene. He has afterward written a sticker album of artwork and poetry called I Dreamed My People Were Calling But I Couldn't Find My Way Home. He has then published Deep in Your Best Reflection and The Brown Beatnik Tomes, two new volumes of poetry. In 2015 Simmons moved to Philadelphia and opened Rush Arts Philadelphia gallery (RAP) to supplementary the Rush Arts mission and to begin to create a national presence for the foster organization.

He is a former board member of the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the National Conference of Artists. Today, his works take action Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Museum, Chase Manhattan Bank, Deutsche Bank, Schomburg Center for Black Culture, The Smithsonian, United Nations, and, on an international scope has shown ham it up in France, Amsterdam and Ghana. In 2019, he was appointed to Philadelphia Museum of Art's African American Collections Committee.