Simone Leigh’s ‘monumental’ Royal Academy show set for 2027

Exhibition by African American artist to focus on architecture, art under fascism and her own links to the UK

The Royal Academy will in 2027 host the first major UK exhibition by Simone Leigh, four years after she became the first African American woman to represent the US at the Venice Biennale.

Leigh told the Guardian she would bring a series of new monumental work" to London in September 2027, focusing on themes including architecture, art made under fascism and her own connection - via her Jamaican heritage - to the UK.

I've been thinking about American history a lot in the development of these works because we're now living under full-on fascism here," she said. I've been thinking about the kind of art that's made under fascism."