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Simone Leigh

Visual Artist

Visual Artist

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Simone Leigh Biography

Born in Chicago in 1967, Simone Leigh received a BA in fine art with a minor in philosophy from Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, in 1990. There, she embarked on her training in traditional ceramics under the tutelage of practitioners whose lineage can be traced back to the British studio potter Bernard Leach (1887–1979). After spending a semester as an intern at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., Leigh developed an interest in engaging with the often erroneous categorization, display, and historicization of objects associated with the African diaspora.

Leigh works primarily with sculpture, installation, and video, as well as with Social Practice, to foreground black female experience. Often combining premodern techniques and materials—including lost-wax casting, salt-fired ceramics, and terracotta—with potent cultural iconographies such as cowrie shells, plantains, and tobacco leaves, Leigh creates objects and environments that reframe stereotypes associated with black women and celebrate black life. Her series Anatomy of Architecture (2016– ) occupies the liminal space between figuration and abstraction, merging forms drawn from the human body, the built environment, and the domestic realm. Employing a research-based approach grounded in materiality, Leigh renders figures and architectonic forms in bronze, ceramic, and raffia that are imbued with references and sensibilities sourced from Pan-African vernacular culture, ranging from early Egyptian terracotta vessels and the rammed-earth dwellings of the Cameroonian Mousgoum to Nigerian ibeji figures and nineteenth-century African American face jugs.

Engaging with histories of black emancipation, Leigh often invokes specific episodes drawn from the legacies of black revolutionary organizations, including the 1970s Philadelphia-based MOVE and the Black Panther Party, as well as the United Order of Tents, a secret society of black women nurses founded during the era of the Underground Railroad. In 2016, she produced the Free People’s Medical Clinic, a temporary space for collective healing and wellness services administered by and directed toward black women. Named after an initiative founded by the Black Panther Party and housed in a brownstone owned by the first African American obstetrics-and-gynecology practitioner, the project examined themes of resilience, collectivity, and self-reliance.

Leigh has had solo presentations at the Kitchen, New York (2012); Creative Time, New York (2014); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2016); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); and the High Line, New York (2019); among other venues. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions including Wild Girls: The Next Generation of Women Artists, Exit Art, New York (2006); Scratching the Surface VOL 1, L’appartement22, Rabat, Morocco (2008); The Future As Disruption, Kitchen (2008); 30 seconds off an Inch, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2009); Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of America Art, New York (2012 and 2019); Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2013); Dak’art Biennial, Dakar, Senegal (2014); Greater New York, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York (2015); Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon, New Museum of Contemporary Art (2017); Berlin Biennial (2018); and Vancouver Biennial (2019). Leigh has been recognized with a Creative Capital Award (2012) and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2016), among other honors. She received the 2018 Hugo Boss Prize, and her related exhibition, Loophole of Retreat, is being presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2019). Leigh lives and works in Brooklyn.

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FAQs on booking Simone Leigh

  • How do I book Simone Leigh to speak at my event?

    Our experienced booking agents have successfully helped clients around the world secure speakers like Simone Leigh for speaking engagements, personal appearances, product endorsements, or corporate entertainment since 2002. Click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page to check availability for Simone Leigh, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to discuss your upcoming event. One of our experienced agents will be happy to help you get speaking fee information and check availability for Simone Leigh or any other speaker of your choice.
  • What are the speaker fees for Simone Leigh

    Speaking fees for Simone Leigh, or any other speakers and celebrities, are determined based on a number of factors and may change without notice. The estimated fees to book Simone Leigh are for live events and for virtual events. For the most current speaking fee to hire Simone Leigh, click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to speak directly with an experienced booking agent.
  • What topics does Simone Leigh speak about?

    Simone Leigh is a keynote speaker and industry expert whose speaking topics include Art, Culture, Literary.
  • Where does Simone Leigh travel from?

    Simone Leigh generally travels from an undisclosed location, but can be booked for private corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. For more details, please contact an AAE Booking agent.
  • Who is Simone Leigh’s agent?

    AAE Speakers Bureau has successfully booked keynote speakers like Simone Leigh for clients worldwide since 2002. As a full-service speaker booking agency, we have access to virtually any speaker or celebrity in the world. Our agents are happy and able to submit an offer to the speaker or celebrity of your choice, letting you benefit from our reputation and long-standing relationships in the industry. Please click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page including the details of your event, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536, and one of our agents will assist you to book Simone Leigh for your next private or corporate function.
  • What is a full-service speaker booking agency?

    AAE Speakers Bureau is a full-service speaker booking agency, meaning we can completely manage the speaker’s or celebrity’s engagement with your organization from the time of booking your speaker through the event’s completion. We provide all of the services you need to host Simone Leigh or any other speaker of your choice, including offer negotiation, contractual assistance, accounting and billing, and event speaker travel and logistics services. When you book a speaker with us, we manage the process of hosting a speaker for you as an extension of your team. Our goal is to give our clients peace of mind and a best-in-class service experience when booking a speaker with us.
  • Why is AAE Speakers Bureau different from other booking agencies?

    If you’re looking for the best, unbiased speaker recommendations, paired with a top-notch customer service experience, you’re in the right place. At AAE Speakers Bureau, we exclusively represent the interests of our clients - professional organizations, companies, universities, and associations. We intentionally do not represent the speakers we feature or book. That is so we can present our clients with the broadest and best performing set of speaker options in the market today, and we can make these recommendations without any obligation to promote a specific speaker over another. This is why when our agents suggest a speaker for your event, you can be assured that they are of the highest quality with a history of proven success with our other clients.

Simone Leigh is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics . The estimated speaking fee range to book Simone Leigh for your event is available upon request. Simone Leigh generally travels from and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Courtney Marie Andrews, Mark Rodgers, Tavares Strachan, Meredith Talusan and Kevin Sherry. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Simone Leigh for an upcoming live or virtual event.

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