Simone Leigh

Simone Leigh (born 1967, Chicago, IL) is an internationally acclaimed sculptor and multimedia artist whose work centers Black women’s histories, labor, beauty, and interior worlds. Rooted in Black feminist thought, her practice engages ceramic traditions, African and diasporic aesthetics, architectural forms, and ethnographic histories to interrogate how Black women have been represented — and misrepresented — in art, anthropology, and public memory. Leigh creates monumental bronzes, ceramic forms, installations, and videos that honor Black womanhood as a site of knowledge, resilience, and power. Her sculptures often merge the human figure with domestic, ritual, or architectural forms such as dwellings, water vessels, and ornamental structures.  In 2022, Leigh became the first Black woman to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, earning the Golden Lion for Best Participant for her presentation in The Milk of Dreams. Her solo exhibitions have been presented at the ICA Boston, Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, and numerous international institutions. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.