Gallery Wendi Norris is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of sculptures, installation, and a collaborative video by renowned New York-based artist Simone Leigh. Leigh’s work, primarily an object-based practice, explores black female subjectivity through her interest in African art, ethnographic research, feminism, and performance.

Much like Surrealist masters of the 20th Century, Leigh imbues these organic forms with layers of poetic resonance, evoking references to human sexuality, racial politics, and dynamic cultural histories. Inspired by ethnographic objects, human anatomy, and depictions of African Americans from American history, Leigh exposes denigrating stereotypes about black and female bodies as artificial cultural constructs by transforming them into bold, gorgeous works of art. Leading up to her solo exhibition What’s Her Face at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center in spring 2014, the Creative Capital Grantee will be exhibiting several sculptures at Gallery Wendi Norris featuring giant porcelain cowrie shells cast from watermelons.

One such work that will be included in the exhibition, Queen Bee (2008-2013), a chandelier that evolves with each successive installation, was recently on view at The Kitchen in New York. It demonstrates Leigh’s remarkable ability to make familiar materials both strange and beautiful. Her use of repeated forms recall the works of Eva Hesse, and her work has also drawn comparisons to Judy Chicago. Similarly, Breakdown (2011) a video made in collaboration with Liz Magic Laser and recently acquired by the Studio Museum of Harlem, features a haunting, absurdly funny performance by opera singer Alicia Hall Moran that employs everyday language in a meditation on loaded cultural expectations of the concept of “drama”.

This will be Leigh’s first exhibition on the West Coast, as well as with Gallery Wendi Norris. Leigh will be presenting her work as part of the artist lecture series at San Francisco Art Institute on Wednesday, February 5, 2014 from 7:30-9:00 PM.

Simone Leigh is a Creative Capital Grantee and a recipient of the LMCC Michael Richards award. She was the recipient of the 2011 Joan Mitchell Foundation grant for sculpture; the artist-in-residence program at the Studio Museum in Harlem from 2010–11; the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace program; the Bronx Museum’s Artist in the Marketplace program; the Art Matters research grant; and the New York Foundation for The Arts Fellowship for Sculpture. Recent solo presentations include the exhibition, You Don't Know Where Her Mouth Has Been, at The Kitchen, New York, NY, Topsy Turvy, an installation at The Fowler Museum and What's Her Face which will open at the Atlanta Center for Contemporary Art in Spring 2014. Leigh's work has been exhibited internationally at the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna; L’appartement 22 in Rabat, Morocco; The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh; and the AVA Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa. Her work has been featured in Modern Painters, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Small AxE and Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, and EBONY Magazine.She received a BA in Art and Philosophy from Earlham College, and has lectured at New York University, Rhode Island School of Design, Parsons, Rutgers University, and the Tyler School of Art, among others.

Wendi Norris Gallery
161 Jessie Street
San Francisco (CA) 94105 United States
Tel. +1 (415) 3467812
info@gallerywendinorris.com
www.gallerywendinorris.com

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