NEWS THAT LUHRING AUGUSTINE GALLERY is now representing Simone Leigh follows a succession of recent exhibitions, honors and engagements recognizing the currency and innovation of the multidisciplinary artist’s practice.
Brooklyn-based Leigh, whose work spans sculpture, video, installation and performance, is a 2016 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, 2016 Fellow of A Blade of Grass for socially engaged artists, and the 2016 Visual Arts recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts.
Earlier this year, Leigh’s solo exhibition, “I ran to the rock to hide my face the rock cried out no hiding place,” was on view at the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Mo. Her work was also featured in “Us is Them,” a group exhibition at the Pizzuto Collection in Columbus, Ohio, where she gave an artist talk on April 6.
The May 16 announcement that Leigh is joining Luhring Augustine is the latest development.
Investigating female subjectivity and ethnography, Leigh draws on her training in American ceramics, interest in ancient African pottery and dual degrees in art and philosophy. She uses African motifs which tend to have modernist characteristics. Given this, the artist has said her work represents “a collapsing of time.” In its announcement, the gallery further described Leigh’s work: “Through her investigations of visual overlaps between cultures, time periods, and geographies, she confronts and examines ideas of the female body, race, beauty, and community.”
In a conversation with art historian Andrianna Campbell for the Herb Alpert award, Leigh said, “I keep returning to sculpture. I am involved in social practice and performance but I consider myself a sculptor—so much work can be done by an object.”
“I keep returning to sculpture. I am involved in social practice and performance but I consider myself a sculptor—so much work can be done by an object.” — Simone Leigh
Currently, Leigh is participating in “In the Power of Your Care” at the 8th Floor in New York. The group exhibition examines issues of health and healthcare as a human right and features elements of “Free People’s Medical Clinic,” the 2014 project Leigh developed for “FunkJazzGod&Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn,” a collaboration between Creative Time and Weeksville Heritage Center.
VISIT Simone Leigh’s website to learn more about her practice
Art+Auction magazine included Leigh on a list of the 25 most collectible mid-career artists published in its September 2015 issue. She is joining a slate of nearly 30 artists at Luhring Augustine, including Glenn Ligon and Jason Moran, a composer and pianist. “Staged,” Moran’s first solo exhibition is currently on view at gallery (through July 30), which has locations in Chelsea and Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Leigh’s first exhibition with Luhring Augustine has yet to be scheduled.
Laura Wittel, senior director at the gallery, told Culture Type that Leigh “fits perfectly into our program. Her work’s combination of social concerns, outstanding craft, and deep feeling resonates with many of our other gallery artists.” CT
TOP IMAGE: Simone Leigh by Paul Mpagi Sepuya
SIMONE LEIGH, “Untitled II (Anatomy of Architecture series),” 2016 (terra cotta, porcelain, vanadium, india ink, epoxy). | © Simone Leigh; Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York
SIMONE LEIGH, Installation view of “Cupboard III,” 2015 (steel, mason jar glass, and hemp rope). | © Simone Leigh; Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York
SIMONE LEIGH, “Untitled III (Anatomy of Architecture series),” 2016 (terra cotta, porcelain, india ink, epoxy). | © Simone Leigh; Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York
SIMONE LEIGH, “Untitled cowrie (Taupe/black dots),” 2012 | © Simone Leigh; Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York
SIMONE LEIGH, “Untitled V (Anatomy of Architecture Series),” 2016 (terra cotta, porcelain, manganese, 14K gold luster, raffia, india ink, epoxy). | © Simone Leigh; Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York
