Wangechi Mutu: The Hybrid Human

Wangechi Mutu: The Hybrid Human is an exhibition of prints and sculpture including complete sets of two series of prints: Histology of the Different Classes of Uterine Tumors from 2006, and The Original Nine Daughters from 2012. In Histology of the Different Classes of Uterine Tumors, Mutu builds upon the pages of a Victorian medical diagram to create portraits and masks that are powerfully alluring in their futuristic aura and at times frightful with a primordial feel.

Wangechi Mutu is a trained sculptor and studied anthropology but first came to prominence through her collage works, which fuse a diversity of sources culled from the image gluttony of late 20th century and early 21st century life. Mutu draws from the aesthetics of traditional ritual arts, science fiction, and Afrofuturistic funkdaleia. She makes use of materials from 19th century prints, fashion magazines, scientific periodicals, pornography, and ethnographic photographs to explore the contradictions of female and cultural identity and makes reference to colonial history, contemporary African politics, and the representation of female in media. She combines her sourced materials with ink, paint, and reflective material to realize lusciously intricate full figure works and portraiture. Since the late 1990’s Mutu’s artworks have been keenly focused on the creation of surrealist characters that are hauntingly grotesque and seductive while they critique systems of power and patriarchy, both political and aesthetic.

This is Wangechi Mutu’s first solo exhibition in the Pacific Northwest and the inaugural exhibition in the annual Jordan D. Schnitzer Exhibition and Visiting Artist Series.The Jordan D. Schnitzer Exhibition and Visiting Artist Lecture Series presents an annual curated exhibition from the dynamic and expansive collection of more than 9,000 contemporary prints of Jordan D. Schnitzer and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation at the Pacific Northwest College of Art 511 Gallery. The series brings an invited artist in connection to the exhibition to engage with PNCA students, faculty, and the public through lectures, studio visits, and collaborations with the MFA in Print Media program. In addition to the Exhibition and Visiting Artist Series, selections from the Collection will be lent to the PNCA Object Library to be studied by students and faculty on a regular rotating basis.

Wangechi Mutu presents an artist’s talk on March 10, 2016, at 6:30pm at PNCA’s Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design.

Wangechi Mutu: The Hybrid Human is co-presented with the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, PNCA’s MFA Print Media, and MFA Visual Studies Departments.