Artist Simone Leigh’s monumental, bronze sculptures punctuate the U.S. pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia’s 59th Art Biennale in Italy. Commissioned by Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art and the U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Chicago-born artist’s “Sovereignty” opened alongside the rest of the biennale this spring. The first Black woman to represent the U.S. at the nearly 130-year-old event, Leigh often works with sculptures, video, and performance to engage with Black feminist theory, subjectivity, and gap-riddled narratives. Her historic exhibit in Venice interlaces human forms with architectural elements and domestic objects to explore themes of self-determination while interrogating centuries of colonial extraction.