Simone Leigh

Simone Leigh

b. 1967, Chicago
lives in New York

Simone Leigh works primarily in sculpture, installation, video and public practice; all are informed by her ongoing exploration of black female-identified subjectivity. Leigh works in a mode she describes as “auto-ethnographic.” Her sculptural practice draws on materials and forms traditionally associated with African art, while her performance-influenced installations bring historical precedent and self-determination together. Through her investigations of visual overlap between cultures, time periods, and geographies, she examines and reveals relationships between ideas about  the female body, race, beauty, and community. Leigh earned a BA in art and philosophy from Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, in 1990. She has had solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and the New Museum, New York, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, recently held her solo exhibition Loophole of Retreat in 2019 following her award of the 2018 Hugo Boss Prize. Her work is found in the collections of Guggenheim Museum, Hammer Museum, and Pérez Art Museum Miami, among others

Installation view: The Hugo Boss Prize 2018: Simone Leigh, Loophole of Retreat, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, April 19 – October 27,2019. Photo: David Heald © 2019 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation