Smooth ‘N Shine #AfricanQueen Profile The Solo Artist Wangechi Muti knew early on that she was different. The Kenyan artist has been sweeping success in the international art world and is represented by galleries in New York, Los Angeles and London. But the path to a steady career in contemporary art did not come easy. After high school in Wales, Mutu came to a realisation. “It occurred to me that there was not going to be an opportunity for me to pursue my art in a serious way in Narobi…I knew that pursuing art was going to be seen as a joke. I was raised in Kenya, I knew how people perceive artists and art,” she admits. “My dream was [to] get a place, an environment [where] I could dig in to this thing and really learn, grow and be the best artist I can be.” Mutu got her wish when she earned a coveted spot at the Yale School of Art for graduate studies in Sculpture. But her family didn’t see it that way at first. ”I had to pursue the application to go to school almost independently, it was not something anyone was supporting me in because nobody understood why I was doing it, no one quite understood how it was going to benefit me, them, [or] anyone.” She credits her mother for giving her the tenacity she needed to succeed as an artist. “I remember thinking, ‘I don’t want my mom to spend the next 10 years working as hard as she did when we were kids.’ She had done enough for us. And I remember thinking that my commitment to [this] was pouring that in my work. I said ‘I’ll make it so she can finally rest a little bit.’” Mutu’s work is an intriguing mix of mediums and colours but the exploration is always the same. “I have been for years, even before I left school in Wales, interested in the female body as a subject in really the kinds of existential, intimate, profound ways as a woman…there’s a wide breadth of ideas and interests that bring me back to the female body for better or worse.” Mutu is currently preparing for her second solo show at the Victoria Miro Gallery in London this October. The series, Nguva na Nyoka, means Sirens and Serpents in kikuyu, a Kenyan dialect. The exhibition reimagines the sirens, or water woman, of East Africa. - Forbes Woman Africa #smoothnshineafr #MyHairMyCrown
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 14:34:21 +0000
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