Our next ‘Inspired By’ artist is a celebrated contemporary sculptor: Simone Leigh. Her artworks frequently incorporate materials traditionally associated with African art and history while also blending in her own personal experiences. The Chicago-born artist focus on race, history and gender, but above all on the black female experience.
After her time as an intern at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., Leigh developed an interest in the categorization and display of African diaspora. From there, she took her career to New York where she remains today. Leigh also founded an organization called Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter, a collective formed after the murder of Philando Castille and in protest against racial injustice. her work continues to be auto-ethnographic through her ongoing exploration of black female subjectivity.
Leigh’s dedication and exploration of the construct of Black women in American history and its relation to female form is constantly inspiring us to take a look at our own relationship with the world around us.
With love,
Marisa
