Art
Simone Leigh’s Monuments to the Black Femme
Leigh’s survey split between two Los Angeles venues demonstrates the futility in prescribing a definitive role to the Black feminine in a postcolonial world.
Simone Leigh
Art
The Divine Dissatisfaction of Music
Mariam Ghani and Erin Ellen Kelly’s Musical Thinking at the Smithsonian American Art Museum is alive with pathos.
Art
At the Venice Biennale, Simone Leigh Embraces Sovereignty
Leigh’s transformation of the US National Pavilion is no immersive installation, but rather a proposal in sculpture, and by sculpture.
News
In Historic First, Simone Leigh and Sonia Boyce Win Venice Biennale’s Golden Lions
They are the first Black women to represent their countries in the international exhibition.
News
Simone Leigh Will Represent the US at the 2022 Venice Biennale
The New York-based artist will be the first Black woman to represent the country at the prestigious exhibition.
News
The High Line Wants You to Weigh in on Its Next Public Sculptures
From playful to political, there are 80 options by artists including Nick Cave, Mona Hatoum, and Wang Sishun.
News
“We Feel Very Betrayed": Community Protests Replacement for J. Marion Sims Monument
Local stakeholders from the Beyond Sims Committee objected to a vote by a panel of judges appointed by New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
News
Simone Leigh, Wangechi Mutu, Kehinde Wiley, and Vinnie Bagwell In the Running for New Central Park Memorial
The artists were selected as finalists to replace a statue of J. Marion Sims, a 19th-century doctor who conducted violent surgeries on enslaved Black women.
Art
Simone Leigh's Debris of Silence
Simone Leigh's work, on view at the Guggenheim Museum, is inhibiting in a particularly difficult way: it doesn’t seduce; it doesn’t explain, it doesn’t rely on interpretation; it doesn’t care what I think.
Art
Probing the Proper Grounds for Criticism in the Wake of the 2019 Whitney Biennial
In the wake of numerous critiques regarding the lack of perceived “radicality” in the Whitney Biennial, a critic analyzes the implications of artist Simone Leigh’s response.
Art
The Overdue Skyrocketing of Simone Leigh
Simone Leigh’s chief subject is, in her own terms, “black female subjectivity,” hardly a predominant theme in an art world that has skewed way white and male since its inception.
Art
The Political Resonance of Contemporary Sculpture
Sculpture at Luhring Augustine posits contemporary sculpture as a corrective to politically regressive monuments in the United States.