Wangechi Mutu

METASTASIS V AND METASTASIS VI

2016
watercolor on paper
two parts, 16 1/8 x 12 1/8 inches each

Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu’s wide-ranging artistic output incorporates a variety of materials, both traditional (ink, paint, collage) and nontraditional (stone, pearls, mud, vines, leaves). Her subject matter often deals with her race and gender, filtered through poetic, symbolic works that feature otherworldly, imagined figures. In these watercolors, body and plant forms stretch and pulse with an organic beauty that suggest life as a mutable, enigmatic existence. Mutu’s work has been the subject of numerous solo shows, including Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey, which traveled to Brooklyn Museum, New York; Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina; Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami; and Block Museum, Evanston, Illinois. Other solo exhibitions include: SITE, Santa Fe; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal; Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin; Wiels Center for Contemporary Art, Brussels; Art Gallery of Ontario; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Kunsthalle Wien; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.