Black Women, Black Art, and the Centennial of 16mm Film

Join us for COMPLETA, a special program of three short films followed by a conversation between artist Simone Leigh and writer Yasmina Price (Yale University), moderated by program curator Greg de Cuir, Jr. They will discuss Leigh’s film work in the context of her multidisciplinary practice, along with her overarching project to center and celebrate the creative work of Black women.

This event is held in partnership with the National Gallery of Art’s Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series.

About the Speakers

Over the last 20 years Simone Leigh has created a multi-faceted body of work incorporating film, sculpture, video, and installation, all informed by her ongoing exploration of Black female-identified subjectivity. Leigh describes her work as auto-ethnographic, and her salt-glazed ceramic and bronze sculptures often employ forms traditionally associated with African art. In 2014 she presented The Free People’s Medical Clinic in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, a project commissioned by Creative Time. Her work was included in the 2012 and 2019 Biennial exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. She is also the first artist to be commissioned for the High Line Plinth; her monumental sculpture Brick House was unveiled in April 2019. In 2022, Leigh represented the United States at the 59th Venice Biennale with her exhibition, Simone Leigh: Sovereignty. Her work was also included in the Biennale’s central exhibition, The Milk of Dreams, for which she was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Participant.

Greg de Cuir, Jr. is co-founder and artistic director of Kinopravda Institute in Belgrade, Serbia. He has organized programs at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, the Anthology Film Archives in New York, Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, and Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen in Germany, among others.

Yasmina Price is a writer, researcher, and PhD student in the Departments of African American Studies and Film and Media Studies at Yale University. She focuses on anti-colonial African cinema and the work of visual artists across the Black diaspora, with a particular interest in the experimental work of women filmmakers. She has interviewed filmmakers and participated in panels on Black film and revolutionary cultural production organized by The Maysles Documentary Center, International Documentary Association, New York Film Festival, and more. Some of her recent writing has appeared in The Current (Criterion), The New Inquiry, The New York Review of Books, the Metrograph Journal, Vulture, Hyperallergic, and MUBI.

About Women, Arts, and Social Change

Women, Arts, and Social Change is a public programs initiative that highlights the power of women and the arts as catalysts for change. Fresh Talk, the initiative’s signature program, features cause-driven conversations with leading artists, designers, activists, social innovators, and others.