Simone Leigh facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Simone Leigh
Leigh in 2017
Born	1967 (age 57–58) Chicago, Illinois
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Earlham College
Awards	Guggenheim Fellowship Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award Creative Capital grantee Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Michael Richards Award Joan Mitchell Foundation grant Artist-in-Residence The Studio Museum in Harlem New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship Art Matters Foundation grant Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award (2018) Hugo Boss Prize (2018) Venice Biennale Golden Lion (2022)

Simone Leigh (born 1967) is an American artist. She was born in Chicago and now works from her studio in Brooklyn, United States. Simone Leigh creates many different types of art. These include sculpture, art installations, videos, and performances. She also does "social practice" art, which involves working with people.

Leigh's art often explores her own culture and history. She is very interested in African art and everyday objects. Her work also focuses on feminism, which means supporting equal rights for women. She wants to show the important experiences of Black women. In 2023, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Early Life and Education

Simone Leigh was born in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents were missionaries from Jamaica. She grew up on the South Side of Chicago. This neighborhood was mostly Black. Leigh said that growing up there made her feel confident. She felt her race did not limit what she could achieve.

She went to Kenwood Academy High School. Like her brother and sister, she was a very good student. After high school, Leigh attended Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. She earned a degree in Art with a minor in Philosophy in 1990.

Simone Leigh's Art Career

Simone Leigh first planned to become a social worker. But after an internship at the National Museum of African Art, she decided to become an artist. She realized she loved making art and could not stop.

Her art combines American ceramics with African pottery styles. She uses African designs that look modern. Even though she mainly makes sculptures, she also creates "social sculptures." These are art projects that involve the public directly.

How She Creates Her Art

Leigh uses materials and shapes often seen in African art. Her installations, which are like art environments, mix history with self-determination. She says this mix creates a "collapsing of time." This means her art brings past and present together.

Many people see her work as a new way to use ceramics in art. She has given talks at many art places around the world. She has also taught ceramics at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Venice Biennale Success

In October 2020, Simone Leigh was chosen to represent the United States. She showed her art at the 2022 Venice Biennale. This is a very famous international art exhibition. She was the first Black woman to represent the U.S. there.

At the Biennale, she won a Golden Lion award for her sculpture Brick House. She also showed a film called Conspiracy. She made this film with artist Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich.

Awards and Recognition

Simone Leigh has received many important awards for her art. These awards show how much her work is valued.

Some of her major awards include:

• The Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale (2022)
• The Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize from the Studio Museum in Harlem (2017)
• A Guggenheim Fellowship (2012 and 2016)
• The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts (2016)
• The Hugo Boss Prize (2018), a $100,000 award from the Guggenheim Museum

Art Market and Sales

Simone Leigh's sculptures are very popular in the art market. Her works have sold for high prices.

In 2023, her sculpture Stick (made in 2019) sold for $2.7 million. This was a new record for her art at an auction. Before that, her sculpture Birmingham (made in 2012) sold for $2.2 million in 2022.

Exhibitions of Her Work

Simone Leigh has had many solo art shows. These have been in galleries and museums in the U.S. and other countries. She has also created public art installations.

Solo Exhibitions

Some of her solo shows include:

• Simone Leigh (2004) at Momenta Art, New York City
• You Don’t Know Where Her Mouth Has Been (2012) at The Kitchen, New York
• The Waiting Room (2016) at New Museum, New York
• Psychic Friends Network (2016) at Tate Modern, London
• Brick House (2019) at High Line, New York
• Sovereignty (2022) at the American pavilion for the 59th Venice Biennale

Group Exhibitions

She has also shown her art in many group exhibitions. These include:

• The Dakar Biennale (2014)
• The Berlin Biennale (2019)
• The Whitney Biennial (2019)
• The Milk of Dreams (2022) at the 59th Venice Biennale

In 2024, she had two shows at the same time in Southern California. These were at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the California African American Museum (CAAM).

Notable Works in Public Collections

Many of Simone Leigh's artworks are owned by museums and public places. This means people can visit and see them.

• Breakdown (2011), at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
• My Dreams, My Works Must Wait Till After Hell (2011), at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and Whitney Museum, New York
• Stack II (2015), at KMAC Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
• Trophallaxis (2008-2017), at Pérez Art Museum Miami
• Dunham (2017), at the Art Institute of Chicago
• Georgia Mae (2017), at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
• 103 (Face Jug Series) (2018), at the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa
• Cupboard VII (2018), at the Whitney Museum, New York
• Figure with Skirt (2018), at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
• No Face (Crown Heights) (2018), at Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
• No Face (Pannier) (2018), at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Opuwo (2018), at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island
• Brick House (2019), at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
• Corrugated (2019), at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm
• Cupboard IX (2019), at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
• Las Meninas (2019), at the Cleveland Museum of Art
• Sentinel (2019), at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
• Stick (2019), at the Whitney Museum, New York
• Loophole of Retreat (2019), at the Brooklyn Museum, New York
• Kasama (2020), at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas
• Quonset (2020), at the Whitney Museum, New York
• Sentinel IV (2020), at Landmarks, University of Texas at Austin
• Sphinx (2021), at the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
• Village Series (2021), at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York
• Village Series (2021), at Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland
• Sentinel (2022), at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Images for kids

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  Simone Leigh giving a lecture in 2013

See also

In Spanish: Simone Leigh para niños