Born in Kenya, trained at Yale University, and based between Nairobi and New York City, Wangechi Mutu is a visual artist with a multifaceted cultural identity.
It’s unsurprising, then, that she chooses to work with a diverse range of mediums to conflate issues of gender, race, art history, and personal identity throughout her complex and fascinating practice. The surreal nature of her imagery has placed her work within the realm of futuristic or science-fiction like themes that incorporate elements of black history and culture.
As a result, her practice is often discussed as providing an alternate course of history for people of African descent.
Mutu has become a celebrated fixture in the international art sector over the past two decades, and, during her talk at ART X Lagos, she will speak in depth about her studio practice and her life as a multidisciplinary, multinational artist, and how the two inform one another. She will also explore how her work complicates perceptions of femininity, and touch upon how her practice unpacks legacies of colonialism and anthropology, as well as race and gender. Finally, Mutu will share insights with the audience about her current projects and her future aspirations.
An article by The Art Momentum
Featured image : Wangechi Mutu, An installation view of Water Woman, 2017, at Gladstone Gallery, New York, in 2017. © Wangechi Mutu/Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels.
→ instagram.com/wangechistudio
This article was written for The Art Momentum | ART X Lagos 2019 Artpaper. [French version inside]
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