Simone Leigh and Sonia Boyce Made Powerful History at the Venice Biennale

Simone Leigh and Sonia Boyce are the first Black women to sweep the Golden Lion awards at the Venice Biennale.

For the Venice Biennale 2022, curator Cecelia Alemani made it her mission to change up the status quo. According to ARTnews, the Venice Biennale 2022 has a record-high number of countries presenting pavilions. This meant that new voices are being included in the conversation. Not only have countries like Cameroon, Uganda, and Namibia launched their first national pavilions, but the two Golden Lion awards also had been won by Black women for the first time in the Biennale’s history.

American Artist Simone Leigh’s Brick House (2019) won her a Gold Lion for best participation in the Biennale’s international exhibition The Milk of Dreams. Leigh took to Instagram to express her gratitude to Alemani, mentioning how honored she was to be presented alongside the late Cuban printmaker Belkis Ayón.

Sonia Boyce represented the United Kingdom. Her multimedia installation, Feeling Her Way, is a collaboration with musicians Jacqui Dankworth, Poppy Ajudha, Sofia Jernberg, Tanita Tikaram, and Errollyn Wallen. Her work won the Gold Lion for best national participation.

Ebele Okobi, the first Black female principal patron of the UK Pavilion, expressed her mixed feelings regarding the “first” title in an interview. “I am ambivalent about ‘firsts.’ A ‘first’ in the year of our lord 2022 reminds me of all of the centuries of talent and dreams and hopes deferred. In truth, it’s evidence of the grinding cost of systems of power like white supremacy and patriarchy,” she stated.

Regardless, Okobi recognizes that in the aggressively white art world, Leigh and Boyce have carved out spaces to celebrate and center Black people. She expressed her joy on Instagram.

Okobi reiterates the importance of art to marginalized voices, stating, “Art gives us the comfort, the joy to be able bear the world as it is. And it gives us the space and the energy and the challenge to imagine the world as it could be, as it should be. Especially for so many of us, now and in the past, for whom freedom only existed in our imaginations.” Simone Leigh and Sonia Boyce opened a new chapter in the Biennale’s history with their work, making way for a more diverse and nuanced art world.