Simone Leigh
Simone Leigh (1967 - present)
Born in 1969, in Chicago, IL.
She earned a BA in Art from Earlham College in Richmond, IN, in 1990.
Is known for creating modern ceramics with female and African motifs. Her work confronts past and current racism in America, as well as the Black female life experience.
Won the Golden Lion Award at the 2022 Venice Biennale for her work Brick House, which weighs 5,900 pounds. The Venice Biennale is the longest-running and most important international art exhibition in the world.
Simone Leigh has been creating art for decades, but just recently became noticed by major museums and the international art world. She is most know for her sculptures, both traditional sized jugs and larger than life human forms. In 2019, she was interviewed by CBS This Morning Saturday, just before Brick House debuted on the High Line. You can imagine that the instillation process for a 16 foot, nearly 6,000 pound sculpture was well orchestrated. A work by Leigh titled Jug (2022), is currently on view at the MFA in the exhibit Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina (on view 3/4/23 - 7/9/23).
What do you notice? ✏️ What do you wonder? ✏️ What do you like or dislike?
Simone Leigh.pdf