I have been a big fan of Miss Mutu's ever since I learned the intricacies of watermedia. Wangechi Mutu is well known in the art world as a Kenyan-born, Yale-educated female artist who makes creepy collages combined with paint and ink on mylar. The way she harnesses the weirdness and unexpected nature of drippy pools of paint is why I have always been intrigued by her work. Interlaced within the paint are images dug from various sources, from fashion magazines to National Geographic, producing sinister social critiques discussing colonialism, feminism, and power. She does sculpture as well, and in fact majored in sculpture while pursuing her MFA at Yale in 2000. However, since the paintings are usually the highlighted work, everyone seems to like the paintings better, including me.
She has a new show at Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York and I would highly encourage going if you have the means. She will also be giving an artist's talk on December 6 at the San Francisco Art Institute, so I will have a chance to hear her talk about her work. Yeah!
Mutu is represented by Gladstone Gallery in New York, as well as Susanne Vielmetter in Los Angeles, and Victoria Miro Gallery in London.
(These images are dense, so don't forget you can double-click for a larger window)
"I Sit, You Stand, They Crawl" 2010
"Before Punk Came Funk" 2010
"Tree Huggers" 2010
Misguided Little Unforgivable Hierarchies" 2005
"My Strength Lies", (date unknown)
The above images from 2010 are courtesy of Gladstone Gallery's website and the bottom images were found on google.
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