The Rise And Rise Of Wangechi Mutu

BY Zodwa Kumalo-Valentine

“Excited to share the latest cover of Harper’s Bazaar Art, featuring Wangechi Mutu’s ‘Humming’ (2010). Look out for our @bazaaruk Instagram takeover in a couple of weeks!” went the tweet from artist Wangechi Mutu’s @mutustudio account in October 2014. Because, of course, an artist this accomplished and celebrated, doesn’t tweet for herself.

Featured as one of six top names in contemporary art, including Chris Ofili and Takashi Murakami, to design the second installment of Harper’s Bazaar’s Art edition, Mutu’s cover is a bright explosion of an orchid in vivid striped vines, arresting colours and the mixed prints collage effect she is known for.

The magazine cover’s vivacity and boldness is true to the Mutu thumbprint. The Kenyan-born, New York-based artist’s career that has spawned strange creature-like collages, hyper-real landscapes, provocative configurations of the female form and somewhat disturbing video installations, spans from the early nineties.

Her body of work, which was presented for the first time in the book Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey, continues to explore themes around globalisation, depictions of the black female form and gender, among other societal issues.

The Huffington Post named her one of the Top 10 Women Artists of the New Millennium You Should Know, she was listed among Forbes’ Young Power Women of Africa in 2013 and awarded Creative Artist of the Year at the African Diaspora Awards in the same year.

Images: Supplied