Wangechi Mutu's Largest Survey Opens at New Museum

The New Museum in New York presents 'Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined', the largest exhibition ever dedicated to the Kenyan-born artist (b. 1972), featuring 115 works spanning painting, collage, drawing, sculpture, video, and installation produced over 25 years. The show occupies the museum's hall, three upper levels, the Sky Room, and includes a new commission for the facade glass. Curators describe the exhibition as tracing connections between Mutu's recent sculptural developments and her long-standing exploration of colonialism, globalization, and African and diasporic cultural traditions. The exhibition is structured across floors: the second and third levels highlight the relationship between collage and sculpture, while the fourth floor showcases recent large-scale works. Notable pieces include 'The Seated I', a bronze female figure wrapped in horizontal coils referencing hand-built clay pot techniques, and 'Crocodile' (2020), a fused bronze sculpture of a crocodile and rider with architectural scales. Mutu, who lives primarily in Nairobi but has maintained a studio in Brooklyn since 2015, gained international recognition in the late 1990s for her collages exploring camouflage and transformation. Her hybrid creatures blend human, animal, plant, alien, and male-female elements, always emphasizing femininity. The exhibition runs until June 4, 2023 at the New Museum, 235 Bowery.