Sonia Boyce, and Simone Leigh, representing the UK and USA respectively, at the 2022 Venice Biennale.

[TottersBlankly]

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/apr/17/artist-sonia-boyce-paintings-are-not-born-on-walls?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

www.nytimes.com/2022/04/14/arts/design/simone-leigh-venice-biennale-us-pavilion.html?referringSource=articleShare

Two lengthy articles, the first on Sonia Boyce in The Guardian today, the second on Simone Leigh in The New York Times last Thursday, (if inaccessible just google the article). Each reflecting on the work and years that have led to this point.

They deserve a thread each, of course, but, obviously, this isn’t something that’s happened before so …

I don’t know. The moment is worth marking - I’m kind of hoping other people might have thoughts less scrambled than mine.

What a great article on Sonia Boyce. I was thrilled to see you post this @TottersBlankly. I'm delighted for her. I remember her working with Liverpool Black Sisters way back now and also the Manchester initiatives. Groundbreaking works, yet overshadowed by the likes of Emin. Same old story for black women artists. As always, a move to London is what seems to be the catalyst in wider recognition. Her "Life on a Carribean Island" is my delight. So good to see this, but she's really earned it, she's brought on and educated young black women to think about the world around them through her art and persona. Decades of it. You can tell I'm a lover of Sonia and her work❤

Saving the Simone article for later. Thanks again.

Maybe solipsistic but as both of these artists are of the same generation as me I’m quite keen to re-read both articles and trace the intersections of their experiences with my own. (And each other.)

But I wish I had been more alert thirty years ago. It was fascinating to read that SB was instrumental in bringing on some of the YBAs who catapulted to fame and glory.

Aha! We must be around the same age as I read the Guardian article with delight and found myself smiling and nodding and reminiscent.
Although of course there were dire times, but this was a warm reminice. I remember that blank wall in the Manchester gallery inviting thoughts and the outrage it caused amongst some who missed their half naked nymph pictures.
How important Sonia Boyce was to be in challenging my thinking. Yet its 2022 and it has taken decades to see women artists of our age group ( approximately ) getting international recognition. As always, its been a stony road along the way.

I was sorry to miss the Manchester installation. I seem to remember she made a TV programme a handful of years ago, and I was astonished at how much art, and how many artists were completely unknown to me.

The NYT had another article on this theme, here:

www.nytimes.com/2022/04/19/arts/design/venice-biennale-women-art.html?referringSource=articleShare

Venice prize winners!

news.artnet.com/art-world/sonia-boyce-simone-leigh-golden-lion-venice-biennale-2104018/amp-page

Here’s the link to the Sonya Boyce exhibition guide:

venicebiennale.britishcouncil.org/feeling-her-way/guide

And the Simone Leigh. (Scroll for link.):

simoneleighvenice2022.org/sovereignty/

(Apols for misspelling of Sonia.)