Wangechi Mutu

Primary Syphilitic Ulcers of the Cervix. 2005. collage on found medical illustration paper. 45.7 x 32.4 cm


Fibroid Tumors of the Uterus. 2005. collage on found medical illustration paper. 45.7 x 32.4 cm

Ovarian Cysts. 2005. collage on found medical illustration paper. 45.7 x 32.4 cm

Tumors of the Uterus. 2005. collage on found medical illustration paper. 45.7 x 32.4 cm

Particularly interested in myths about gender and ethnicity that have long circulated in Africa and the West, WANGECHI MUTU has adopted the medium of collage — which by its nature evokes rupture and collision — to depict the monstrous, the exotic, and the feminine.

Manipulating ink and acrylic paint into pools of colour she carefully applies to her surfaces imagery sampled from disparate sources- Vogue, National Geographic, hunting, motorbike and porn magazines. The resulting works process mimics amputation, transplant operations and torturous prosthetics. Her figures become parody mutilations, their forms grotesquely marred through perverse modification, echoing the atrocities of war or self-inflicted improvements of plastic surgery.

She also uses materials which make reference to African identity and political strife: her dazzling black glitter is an abyss of western desire, which allude to the illegal diamond trade and its consequences of oppression and war.

WANGECHI MUTU (b.1972, Nairobi, Kenya) is an artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. On February 23, 2010 she was honored by Deutsche Bank as their first Artist of the Year. The prize included a solo exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. Titled My Dirty Little Heaven, the show traveled in June 2010 to Wiels Center for Contemporary Art in Brussels, Belgium. Her first one person show at Barbara Gladstone Gallery opens October 29, 2010.



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