There are artists who make objects.And then there are artists who quietly—and relentlessly—shift the center of gravity. Simone Leigh belongs to the latter. Born in Chicago in 1967, Leigh didn’t rush into the art world with the usual urgency. In fact, she resisted it. Studied philosophy. Considered becoming a social worker. Tried, quite deliberately, not to be an artist. And yet—inevitably—she became one. Because some practices are not choices, but conditions. Today, Leigh is one of the most influential voices in contemporary art, known for monumental sculptures and immersive installations that do something deceptively simple: they place Black women—historically marginalized, overlooked, misread—firmly at the center. Not as subjects.As structures. The Body as Architecture Leigh’s work is immediately recognisable: powerful, often...
Annelies Nuy is currently developing Post-Colonial Gold, a research project at the intersection of art, fashion, and value systems. The project examines the shift of gold from a carrier of meaning in pre-colonial cultures to its current role as an economic instrument embedded within systems of power, ownership, and global distribution. In pre-colonial contexts, gold functioned within spiritual, social, and relational systems. During colonial expansion, this meaning was replaced by a model based on extraction, accumulation, and control. Post-Colonial Gold makes this shift explicit and places the historical meaning of gold in contrast with another understanding of value. From gold to meaning Where gold once represented connection, ritual, and collective meaning, it was reduced within the colonial system to ownership...
Martha Rosler (b. 1943, Brooklyn, New York) is one of the most incisive voices in contemporary art. For over five decades, her work has examined the intersections of power, war, domesticity, media and the position of women in society. Rather than offering aesthetic escape, Rosler uses art as a method of analysis and confrontation. Her practice spans video, photography, performance, text and installation. Across these media, she consistently questions how images shape ideology — and how everyday life is structured by political and economic systems. The Domestic as Political Space One of Rosler’s most influential works, Semiotics of the Kitchen (1975), takes place in a familiar setting: the kitchen. Standing behind a counter, Rosler presents kitchen tools in alphabetical...
when the familiar becomes unsafe Mona Hatoum (1952) is one of the most influential artists of her generation. She was born in Beirut to Palestinian parents and has lived and worked in London since the 1970s. Her biography is not secondary to the work. Displacement, political tension and the condition of not fully belonging are structural elements in her practice. Hatoum does not tell stories in a literal way. She avoids illustration. Instead, she constructs situations in which the viewer is placed in a position of tension. From body to object Her early work consisted of performances centred on her own body. These works were direct and confrontational, addressing political and personal conditions through physical presence. In the 1990s, her...
Magdalene Odundo (b. 1950, Nairobi) occupies a singular position within contemporary ceramics. Her work resists conventional categorisation as either craft or sculpture, instead operating within a refined territory where material, form, and cultural memory converge. Educated in Kenya, India, and later the United Kingdom, Odundo’s practice is grounded in both Western academic training and sustained engagement with traditional ceramic techniques. Her formative travels in Nigeria and New Mexico exposed her to hand-built pottery traditions and burnishing methods that continue to underpin her work. These influences are neither quoted nor appropriated; rather, they are assimilated into a coherent and highly personal visual language. Process and Material Intelligence Odundo’s vessels are constructed using coiling techniques, a method that allows for precise control...
