Wangechi Mutu : Nguva na Nyoka
Wangechi Mutu : Nguva na Nyoka
Information
The gallery's second exhibition by the artist, widely known for her elaborate collages that explore and subvert cultural preconceptions of the female body and the feminine.
Mutu's practice has been described as engaging in her own unique form of myth-making. This exhibition, Nguva na Nyoka (meaning "Sirens and Serpents" in Kiswahili) presents Mutu's latest body of collage, video and sculptural works. Drawing on such diverse references as East African coastal mythologies (particularly of nguvas, or water women), gender and racial politics, Western popular culture, Eastern and ancient beliefs and autobiography, in her works Mutu proposes worlds within worlds, populated by powerful hybridised female figures.
Mutu's latest collage-paintings are defined by a shift away from her much-documented use of Mylar as a substrate to a use of vinyl and linoleum as the basis for the works, allowing for a more densely textured and sculptural ground. Painterly techniques are employed alongside Mutu's signature construction of images comprised of deftly cut-out and collaged forms. In addition, Mutu's visual language is further enriched in these works by her use of unexpected materials such as tea, batik fabrics, synthetic hair, Kenyan soil, feathers, and sand, amongst other media - many of which are imbued with their own cultural significations.
The interweaving of fact with fiction and an extension of the possibilities for yet another group of symbolic female characterisations that co-exist in various cultures as another understanding (or constructing) of femaleness underpins this new body of work. The exhibition also features a video, entitled Nguva, a multi-tiered performance featuring the mesmeric eponymous role: a mysterious acquatic character who emerges from the sea onto land and wanders, restless, vicious and curious.
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News
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February 11 2024
Wangechi Mutu is the recipient of the Zeitz MOCAA Honorary Award for Artistic Excellence
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Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined at NOMA
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January 9 2024
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News story
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November 23 2023
Wangechi Mutu is named Apollo Artist of the Year
'I believe art is an ancient language that we use to communicate with each other into the future' – Wangechi Mutu Apollo Magazine -
Review
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March 22 2023
Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined at the New Museum is reviewed by The Wall Street Journal
Peter Plagens reviews Wangechi Mutu's major exhibition at the New Museum, on view until 4 June 2023. Peter Plagens, The Wall Street Journal -
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February 28 2023
Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined, on view at the New Museum
The New Museum presents a major solo exhibition (2 March–4 June 2023) of the work of Wangechi Mutu, bringing together over one hundred works from across her twenty-five-year career. New Museum, New York -
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May 17 2022
Wangechi Mutu at Storm King Art Center
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May 16 2022
Marina Warner reviews Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic for The Guardian, featuring work by Wangechi Mutu
Marina Warner reviews for The Guardian the British Museum's group exhibition Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic. Marina Warner, The Guardian -
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March 17 2022
As reported by The Art Newspaper, Storm King Art Center celebrates Wangechi Mutu in its 2022 season
The Storm King Art Center in upstate New York will launch its 2022 season next month with an exhibition of evocative sculptures by the Kenya-born artist Wangechi Mutu, the artist who devised the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s inaugural façade commission in 2019. Special exhibitions 21 May 2022. Gabriella Angeleti, The Art Newspaper -
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May 7 2021
Wangechi Mutu: I Am Speaking, Are You Listening? at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco
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Interview
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December 7 2020
Wangechi Mutu and Carrie Mae Weems discuss creation myths and real-world strategies in Interview Magazine
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July 28 2020
As reported by The New York Times, the Met Museum acquires two sculptures by Wangechi Mutu
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Profile
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March 19 2020
Dee Rees writes about Wangechi Mutu in The New York Times for its special feature on the African-American art shaping the 21st Century
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February 24 2020
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January 15 2020
Wangechi Mutu is featured in Indian Ocean Current: Six Artistic Narratives at McMullen Museum of Art
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Event
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January 10 2020
Wangechi Mutu to deliver Tang Teaching Museum’s Winter/Miller Lecture
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December 27 2019
Wangechi Mutu features in TIME’s 28 Outstanding Women
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December 5 2019
Wangechi Mutu is one of the FT’s Women in 2019: the game changers
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November 11 2019
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Review
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October 11 2019
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October 11 2019
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October 7 2019
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September 16 2019
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September 9 2019
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August 27 2019
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Exhibition
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June 18 2019
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May 16 2019
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January 16 2019
Black Refractions: Highlights from the Studio Museum in Harlem at the Museum of the African Diaspora
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June 20 2018
Wangechi Mutu talks to T Magazine as part of its series The Story of a Thing
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June 19 2018
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February 1 2018
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January 19 2018
Wangechi Mutu: A Promise to Communicate at ICA Boston
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November 15 2017
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November 3 2017
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September 23 2017
Wangechi Mutu at The Contemporary Austin
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Exhibition
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May 2 2017
New and recent work by Wangechi Mutu coming to The Contemporary Austin
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April 11 2017
Wangechi Mutu wins Anderson Ranch’s National Artist Award
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Exhibition
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November 16 2016
Wangechi Mutu in Regarding Africa: Contemporary Art and Afro-Futurism at Tel Aviv Museum of Art
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Gallery Exhibition
24 November 2007 - 19 January 2008
Wangechi Mutu: Yo.n.I
One of a new generation of prominent female artists, Wangechi Mutu first came to attention in 2000 with her pin-up drawings and elaborate figurative collages. Mutu's aesthetic employs an economy... Victoria Miro Gallery I