Dr. V. Joy Simmons’ Los Angeles Is ‘a Place of Possibility’

Jo Malone London’s line-up of Home products is inspired by the British home as a place of memory and meaning, with a character that has settled layer upon layer. Four new videos made in collaboration with Jo Malone London chart the relationship between personality and place through the stories of four creative individuals and the global cities they call home.

Dr. V. Joy Simmons, a radiologist and art collector, describes her home city of Los Angeles as a place ‘where people come with dreams to be who they want to be’. A physician at Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Simmons had artist and gallerist Alonzo Davis for an art teacher in High School, and began her collection when she was in medical school. Today, her home in Ladera Heights includes works by artists ranging from Mark Bradford and Mickalene Thomas to Diedrick Brackens, Calida Rawles and Deborah Roberts. These works, Dr. Simmons says, are intended to tell a story about ‘life in Los Angeles for a Black woman raising two children.’ Beyond living with them, by lending artworks out to be shown in museums like London’s Tate Modern or the California African-American Museum, Simmons says, she can help inspire a younger generation. With this commitment to promoting the idea that ‘not only do Black people make art, but Black people collect art’ she reveals herself, like her home city, committed to a sense of possibility.

Each Jo Malone London Home product is designed to tell its own inspiring story: how will you tell yours? Discover more at www.jomalone.co.uk

Watch the rest of the series to see the places JiaJia Fei, Michaela Yearwood-Dan and Kulapat Yantrasast call home here.