b. 1972 Nairobi, Kenya/Lives and works in New York

Wangechi Mutu’s wall paintings, collages, and installations make reference to race, politics, fashion, and African identity. Mutu assembles portraits that challenge media depictions of fashion, pornography, and ethnography. Her idiosyncratic renderings of female sexuality catalyze multiple interpretations: each exquisite portrait incorporates the contradictions, stereotypes, and expectations of African women and the African diaspora. Mutu received her BFA in 1996 from The Cooper Union, New York, and her MFA in sculpture from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. She has had numerous solo exhibitions including Sleeping Heads Lie Power House, Memphis, Tennessee (2006); An Alien Eye and Other Killah Anthems Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York (2006); The Chief Lair’s A Holy Mess The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (2005); Problematica Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles (2005); and ArtPace, San Antonio, Texas (2004). Group exhibitions include: Global Feminisms The Brooklyn Museum of Art (2007); New York, Interrupted PMK Gallery, Beijing (2006); 2nd Biennial Contemporary Art in Seville Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Spain (2006);Still Points in the Turning World: SITE Santa Fe’s Sixth Annual Biennial Santa Fe (2006); African Queen The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2005); Greater New York 2005 P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2005); Only Skin Deep Changing Visions of the American Self International Center of Photography (traveled to San Diego Museum of Art and Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California, 2005); Pin-Up: Contemporary Collage and Drawing Tate Modern, London (2004); and Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (traveled to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, and Barbican Centre, London, 2003).