Visual art
SIMONE LEIGH
The first-ever comprehensive survey of the work of Simone Leigh arrived at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston April 6, a landmark in the ever-expanding career of one of the country’s most respected artists. The exhibition follows a recent international coup: Leigh and the ICA were deep in planning this show when they decided to submit her work in competition as official American representative for the 2022 Venice Biennale, which opened there last April to broad accolades. Leigh’s show in Boston brings almost every element of that powerful display home, with significant additions. Always at issue for Leigh is Black representation and history, which she explores through a variety of media; but ceramics is her first language, and always at the heart of any of her exhibitions. Through Sept. 4. Institute Of Contemporary Art Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive. 617-478-3100, icaboston.org.
OUTSIDE THE FRAME: TODD WEBB IN AFRICA
In 1958, the United Nations commissioned photographer Todd Webb to document the impact of rapid economic development spurred by foreign investment on landscape and daily life in a number of African countries. The results — pictures of such things as a sparkly new Texaco station in Togo, or neat rows of stainless-steel campers parked in the desert in Somaliland (now Somalia) to house workers at a new well drilled by the Sinclair Oil Co. — depict an Africa grappling with a sudden rush to westernize, often amid struggles for independence from its Colonial overlords who stood to benefit most from its rapid change. At odds with the UN’s optimistic goal of depicting Africa as a shining beacon of international development, they were sparsely published and largely ignored at the time; but they now serve as critical documents of foreign profiteering with little regard for the local context. Through June 18. Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Square, Portland, Maine. 207-775-6148, portlandmuseum.org.
KENT MONKMAN: THE GREAT MYSTERY
Monkman, who is Cree, has built a career of reframing Colonial visions of North American Indigenous cultures from a Native perspective, often an absurdist point of view. This was perhaps most vividly on display in a recent commission for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where Monkman made two massive paintings that incorporated elements of iconic European history paintings from the Met’s collection and rebuilt them with Indigenous perspectives in mind. In this show, Monkman returns to his earliest interest: Abstract Expressionism. His reengagement with it comes at the height of his strength as an artist; he’s now well equipped to grapple with the form’s enigmatic power, and coopt it for his own purpose. Through Dec. 23. Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, 6 East Wheelock St., Hanover, N.H. 603-646-2808, hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu.