Works inspired by a set of global references

Chicago-born, New York-based Simone Leigh creates objects that occupy the liminal space between figuration and abstraction. A wide-ranging thinker and virtuosic maker who produces objects, videos, installations, performances, and works centered on social engagement, Simone Leigh explores black female experiences from a multiplicity of cultural and formal perspectives and historical viewpoints. In recent years, Leigh has become increasingly recognized for her large-scale ceramic and bronze sculptures, which feature braided vessels and skirted body-like forms. Rendered at a scale that is often larger-than-life, the stand-alone sculptures are frequently installed alongside architectural installations. The work is defined by a combination of materials—such as clay, bronze, and raffia—traditionally associated with African art, yet which draw from a global array of references.

New ceramic sculptures in the exhibition include large, bulbous, bottle-like vessels and a bell-shaped figure that is both monumental and intimate. These works can be read in association with the face jug pottery made by nineteenth-century African-Americans enslaved in the South. Leigh’s interest here follows the belief in the sacred value of these vessels, which many believe served as power objects for spiritual protection and the guarding of domestic spaces.

A reflection on black women’s bodies in our world

Leigh’s work manifests the experiences and social histories of subjects often omitted from colonial narratives in a kind of autoethnography that is equally attuned to individual perspectives and collective structures. While her ongoing project is broadly concerned with the epistemologies of black women, her figures extend beyond the representational, and result from extended research into her materials and their histories. Her projects take shape across a heterogeneous spectrum of registers, often combining symbolic and ethnographic modes, and identifying where individual and collective forms of address overlap.

Another new sculpture combines a ceramic component in the form of a woman’s head and torso with a large, dome-like skirt covered in raffia palm leaves. At once a meditation on vernacular architecture (the skirt can be read as a repurposed hut) and an essay in varied textures, colors, and visual rhythms, the work poses questions about Modernism and the relationship between the black female body and the encompassing physical, social, and historical environments in which it appears.

The global array of her references, as well as her nuanced understanding of the varied contexts in which her work appears, results in critical investigations of such complex topics as the feminist perception of beauty, the role of the physical body in communities, and the representation of race, especially as it pertains to the agency of black women. By returning to certain materials and typologies over time and in different contexts, Leigh establishes an open-ended landscape of forms that registers subtle changes in perspective and scale.

She often incorporates architectural interventions in her exhibitions, as she does here in a large-scale installation that occupies one of the gallery’s corners and a majority of one of its walls. A caged steel frame also overlaid with raffia leaves, the work transforms a metaphorical reference to the traditional oval Rondavel grass huts in sub-Saharan Africa or the Mousgoum dwellings in northern Cameroon and Chad into an object that exists somewhere between functional housing and minimalist sculpture. Though there is no door for entry, it evokes, albeit conceptually, the possibility of communal gathering in a space that otherwise privileges singular acts of viewing.

Simone Leigh

David kordansky gallery

Contemporary art exhibition

From May 26th to July 11th, 2020

5130 W Edgewood Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90019

United States

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HAART was founded in 2018 by British-Nigerian lawyer Maryam Lawal, who has had a life-long passion for the arts with a particular focus on artwork from the African continent. Primarily inspired by the burgeoning art scene in Lagos, Nigeria, Lawal aims to give artists from the continent and the diaspora a platform for their work, providing them with greater support and wider recognition. HAART allows collectors to purchase works from early career artists and currently works with artists originating from Nigeria, Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

HAART’s inaugural exhibition will take place from 21 to 26 March 2019 in London. Exhibiting artists include: Àsìkò; Aurélia Durand; John Madu; Kojo Marfo; and Emmanuel Unaji. The exhibition will be a celebration of fresh, new perspectives on artistic talent coming from the continent and a resistance to the stereotypical characterization of works by artists from the African continent as restricted to telling narratives relating to struggle and hardship.

Àsìkò is a visual artist who expresses his ideas through the medium of photography and mixed media. He was born in London, England, spending his formative years in Lagos, Nigeria and adolescence in London. His work is constructed in the narrative that straddles fantasy and reality as a response to his experiences of identity, culture and heritage.

Aurélia Durand is an Ivorian-French graphic artist based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her upbringing in Réunion Island shaped her interests in representing the power and beauty of multi-culturalism. Her varied cultural background compelled Durand to produce art which celebrates culturally diverse and nuanced stories. Her recent works are characterised by “Afro-pop” culture, in which men and women proudly display Afro hair and braids with colourful African prints and edgy fashion accessories.

John Madu is a multidisciplinary artist based in Lagos, Nigeria, whose practice includes painting, collage and design. Many of Madu’s paintings experiment with with fierce brushstrokes of contrasting, often non-realistic colours for his characters. Inspired by pop culture, African contemporary art and surrealism, Madu often paints metaphorical subjects drawing on literature, myths, and his own life experiences.

Kojo Marfo is a Ghanaian artist based in London inspired by an upbringing surrounded by traditional African artifacts. His vibrant works juxtapose visions from his childhood with a current narrative, as a part of his constant drive to grow and evolve authentically. His work has been exhibited internationally in Paris, Tokyo, Amsterdam, New York, Barcelona, and London.

Emmanuel Unaji is a multimedia artist of Nigerian origin, based in London. Combining painting, drawing, collage and fashion design, Unaji’s style is rebellious and bold. Inspired by the fashion industry, Unaji frequently uses fragments of magazine photographs to which he adds painted, drawn or sculpted elements. Blurring the boundaries between fine art and fashion design, he combines mixed media works with other practices to create wearable art in addition to traditional paintings and portraits.

HAART – House of African Art 

Inaugural exhibition 21 – 26 March 2019

Launch Dates
Thursday 21st March – 10am-6pm (previews). 6pm-11pm (opening night).
Friday 22 & Saturday 23rd March – 10am-11pm
Sunday 24th & Monday 25th March – 10am-8pm
Tuesday 26 March – 10am-2pm

Venue Address
Hoxton Arches
402 Cremer Street
London E2 8HD

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Funded by the William Brake Charitable Trust, with additional support from Victoria Miro, London / Venice. 

17 Novembre 2018 – 3 February 2019
Room 41 & 41a, Floor 0
Free
Source : National Portrait Gallery

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