The multidisciplinary artist Gary Simmons has spent decades identifying material representations of racial oppression in America. He has an especially keen eye for the presence of generational racism in the visual cultures of sports, film, literature, and urban environments. But he supports his seeing with research. “The thing about making work that is even slightly political,” Simmons said in a recent interview with The Talks, “is you don’t want to create the answers, you want to create questions. So to create the questions, you’re going to have to know a little bit of the history of both sides. And the interesting part about research, it can lead you into somewhere else that’s even more interesting.” The exhibition “Gary Simmons: Public Enemy” is the artist’s first comprehensive institutional survey. —Lucy Horowitz