Three bronze sculptures, notable for their abstract forms and characteristic examples of Simone Leigh’s artistry, adorn the Agora at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. The exhibition of the internationally acclaimed African American sculptor, titled “Anatomy of Architecture,” opened today and will run until October 31.

Simone Leigh expressed, “It is an honor for me to showcase my work in a country that is considered one of the cradles of culture. Sculpture has a vast tradition in Athens, and I am deeply honored to see my works in this place. For the sculpture ‘Herm,’ I drew inspiration from ancient Greek statues, the Herms, which were placed as protective figures at crossroads, graves, and other public spaces. This artwork, situated in the Agora of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, takes on this role in a contemporary context. It is particularly significant that I showcase my work in the Agora, as traditionally, the Agora in ancient city-states was at the center of public life, yet it was also a place from which women were excluded in antiquity,” she notes.

Simone Leigh’s sculptures often connect the female body with household vessels or architectural elements, focusing her attention on overlooked narratives of care, labor, and consumption. The choice to present these works in the Agora, in a unique context of inclusion, aims to engage visitors in a dialogue—or even a confrontation—with the three imposing sculptural forms, offering yet another powerful artistic experience that reinforces the SNFCC’s role as a continually evolving platform for public art and the principles it can dynamically promote—whether through unmediated interaction or a curated experience that caters to both less familiar audiences and those more knowledgeable.

Over the past twenty years, Simone Leigh has created a multifaceted body of work that includes sculpture, video, and installations, at the core of which is the ongoing exploration of black female identity and its interpretations. Leigh describes her work as “auto-ethnographic,” often drawing forms from African art and traditions. She was the first African American woman to represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale in 2022, winning the Golden Lion for Best National Participation in the central exhibition “Milk of Dreams,” for her monumental sculpture, “Brick House.”

Born in Chicago in 1967, Leigh has presented solo exhibitions at venues including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Tate Gallery in London, Studio Museum in Harlem, and Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Her works have been showcased in the Whitney Biennial in 2012 and 2019 in New York. She was the first artist commissioned to create a work for the High Line Plinth at New York’s High Line park, where her monumental sculpture “Brick House” was unveiled to the public in April 2019.

In 2022, Leigh represented the U.S. at the 59th Venice Biennale, where she was awarded the Golden Lion for her contribution to the central exhibition. In 2023, a retrospective of her work celebrating her twenty-year career was presented at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, which then traveled to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., followed by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the California African American Museum in Los Angeles.