Simpson constructs sculptures that evolve from a broad range of materials, clothing, and architectural sources, often addressing issues of gender and abstraction.
She employs a diverse combination of materials in her sculptures, including cardboard, fibreboard, aluminium, wool, polyester, poplar, faux fur, fleece, mahogany, brass, copper and steel.
[2][3][4] Simpson's work has been exhibited at the Whitney Biennial,[5][6] the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin,[7] White Columns, New York,[8][9] the Jewish Museum (Manhattan), Manhattan,[10] the Chicago Cultural Center,[11] the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago,[12] the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston,[13] Frye Art Museum, Seattle[14] and Nottingham Contemporary, UK.
[17] In 2010 Simpson won the Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Project Grant.
In 1980 she won the Walter M. Campana Prize, awarded by the Art Institute of Chicago.