Simone Leigh, American Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale

About

Presented in the United States Pavilion, Leigh’s exhibition is commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

For the U.S. Pavilion, Simone Leigh has created a new series of figurative sculptures in bronze and ceramic that furthers her commitment to highlighting the labor and resilience of Black women across global histories. Drawing upon artistic traditions from within Africa and the African diaspora, Leigh uses a strategy that she terms “the creolization of form,” merging disparate cultural languages linked through histories of colonization. With these works, Leigh weaves together references to 19th-century West African art, the material culture of early Black Americans, and the colonial history of international expositions.