- By CYNTHIA LUM
Simone Leigh, co-presented in Los Angeles by LACMA and the California African American Museum, is the first comprehensive survey of the richly layered work of this celebrated artist. . She works in various media including sculpture, installations, video, performance, and social practice. Leigh has described her work as auto-ethnographic, and her interests include African art and vernacular objects, performance, and feminism. Her work is concerned with the marginalization of women of color and reframes their experience as central to society. Leigh has often said that her work is focused on “Black female subjectivity,” with an interest in complex interplays between various strands of history. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
LACMA’s presentation features approximately 20 years of Leigh’s production in ceramic, bronze, video, and installation, as well as works from her 2022 Venice Biennale presentation. Over the past two decades, Leigh has created works exploring questions of Black femme subjectivity. Addressing a wide swath of historical periods, geographies, and traditions, her art references vernacular and hand-made processes from across the African diaspora, as well as forms traditionally associated with African art and architecture. Accompanied by a major monograph, this exhibition offers visitors a timely opportunity to gain a holistic understanding of Leigh’s complex and profoundly moving work. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
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