Recently named Artist of the Year by the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, Wangechi Mutu creates regal, talismanic depictions of the female body that take cultural anthropology to a new level.
Mutu came to the US from her native Kenya to study anthropology in addition to fine art, and her shimmering mixed-media collages, paintings, and drawings show both influences. Their richly sensual, organic power and jaunty, jazzy grace posit the literal layering of commercial, private, and collective symbolic imagery as a stand-in for the creation of identity.
Check out images from Mutu’s recent exhibitions at LA’s Susanne Vielmetter Projects, watch a video interview with the artist, and if you’re in Berlin, visit her My Dirty Little Heaven exhibition through June .
Click through below to view a gallery of Mutu’s work.
Drowning Nymph III, 2007, Ink, paint, mixed media, plant material, and plastic pearls on X-ray paper, 14 x 17 inch © Wangechi Mutu and Victoria Miro Gallery, Ole Faarup Collection, Copenhagen
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Blue Eyes, 2008, Mixed media, ink, collage on Mylar, 42 x 62 inch, Photo: Bill Orcutt, © Wangechi Mutu and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, The Collection of Paul and Linda Gotskind
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Fallen Heads, 2010-03-24, Ink, paint, collage, contact paper, and plastic pearls on Mylar, 104 x 53 ¾ inch, Photo: Bill Orcutt, © Wangechi Mutu, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, and Victoria Miro Gallery
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The Bride who married a Camel’s head, 2009, Mixed media, ink, and collage on Mylar, 60 x 40 x 40 inch, Photo: Mathias Schormann, © Wangechi Mutu and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects
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Intertwined, 2003, Collage and watercolor on paper, 16 x 12 inch © Wangechi Mutu and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects
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Bunny Trap, 2008, Mixed-media sculpture, 60 x 40 x 40 inch, © Wangechi Mutu and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects
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Wangechi Mutu, Photo: Chris Saunders, © Wangechi Mutu