Simone Leigh Loophole of Retreat, Guggenheim Museum, New York

Simone Leigh studied ceramics with Mike Thiedeman at Earlham College, a small Quaker school in Indiana. She still uses clay as an element of many of her works, but her purview extends far beyond the usual realms of ceramics. She thinks big, both in dimensions and in concepts, addressing in particular the black female experience.