Gallery Wendi Norris presents a solo exhibition of sculptures, installation, and a collaborative video by renowned New York-based artist Simone Leigh. Leigh’s work, primarily an objectbased 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”.

-Gallery Wendi Norris

Image: © Simone Leigh