The Surreal Cosmos of Wangechi Mutu

What Is Wangechi Mutu Known For

In the intricate, often dreamlike world of Wangechi Mutu, the boundaries between human, plant, animal, and machine dissolve into lush tapestries of identity, femininity, nature, and mythology. Her art pulses with the rhythms of Afrofuturism, postcolonial critique, and an ethereal, almost cosmic vision of the female body, fragmented, empowered, mutated, and reimagined.

Born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1972, and based in both Nairobi and New York, Wangechi Mutu has emerged over the past two decades as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary art. Her work defies easy categorization, blending collage, sculpture, installation, film, and performance in evocative, haunting ways. Through her hybrid figures, neither entirely human nor fully alien, Mutu explores the effects of globalization, gender constructs, and cultural dislocation on the African woman.

This is the story of Wangechi Mutu, her masterpieces, the techniques that fuel her extraordinary vision, and the transformative legacy of a woman who sees art not just as a medium, but as an ecosystem of revolution.

Wangechi Mutu: The Visionary Alchemist of Collage and Sculpture

Wangechi Mutu is internationally celebrated for her powerful, multidimensional work that centers around Black female identity, post-colonialism, environmental degradation, and the feminine body. She first garnered attention in the early 2000s through her surreal, often grotesque collages that combined images from fashion magazines, ethnographic texts, and medical illustrations. Over time, her practice evolved into sculpture, video, and performance, yet her core themes remained.

At the heart of Mutu’s art is the female figure, not as a passive subject but as a force of nature, often twisted, empowered, cyborg-like, or deified. Her characters are half-human, half-mythical beings that reflect the complexity and contradiction of African womanhood in a globalized world.

In her words:

“Females carry the marks, language, and nuances of their culture more than the male. Anything that is desired or despised is always placed on the female body.”

Wangechi Mutu is primarily known for:

  1. Her surreal, Afrofuturistic collages and sculptures that fuse the natural world with post-human, mechanical aesthetics.

  2. Reclaiming the African female body from colonial and patriarchal narratives by presenting it as powerful, ambiguous, and transcendent.

  3. Multi-medium mastery, including film, video, and performance, layered with metaphor and ritual.

  4. Her critique of beauty, violence, consumerism, and cultural alienation, especially from a post-colonial African perspective.

  5. Being the first Black woman to receive a commission for the façade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Famous Artwork by Wangechi Mutu

1. “The Seated Series” (2019) – The Met Facade Commission

Perhaps Mutu’s most internationally celebrated work to date is The Seated Series, created for the Met Museum’s historic façade commission in 2019. She became the first artist ever to install sculptures in the Met’s façade niches and the first Black woman to receive the commission.

These four bronze sculptures, The Seated I, II, III, and IV, stand tall and regal, adorned with lips that echo lip-plates of certain African cultures, elaborate coiffures, and mirrored adornments. They evoke African queens, goddesses, and spirits, seated in majestic stillness, emanating power without movement.

These works subtly reference colonial museum practices, such as displaying African artifacts as static and exotic, while also reclaiming space and gaze in the Western art canon.

Current location: The original bronzes were temporarily installed at the Met, but they have since been exhibited internationally, including at museums like the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

2. “Histology of the Different Classes of Uterine Tumors” (2004)

This early collage piece captures the grotesque beauty and biological violence that Mutu explored in her 2000s work. The piece’s title is borrowed from a 19th-century medical textbook and overlays disturbing, organic imagery with surreal, sensual layers.

Using magazine cutouts, anatomical diagrams, and found images, the collage creates a monstrous female body, part machine, part goddess, part wound.

Significance: It critiques how the female body, especially Black women’s bodies, have historically been objectified and dissected by science, colonialism, and patriarchy.

Current location: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.

3. “The End of Eating Everything” (2013)

A standout in her foray into video and animation, The End of Eating Everything is a powerful, disturbing short film featuring singer Santigold as a grotesque, ever-consuming hybrid creature that devours everything in sight.

The work critiques consumerism, environmental destruction, and excess. Mutu presents the monstrous female body as both a victim and an agent of destruction.

Medium: Video, animation

Location: The piece is shown in various exhibitions; digital versions are often available through galleries representing her, such as Gladstone Gallery.

4. “She Walks” (2015)

A haunting, towering sculpture made from soil, clay, and wood, She Walks is a figure in motion, simultaneously rooted in the earth and emerging from it. The sculpture speaks to environmentalism, motherhood, and feminine persistence.

Exhibited at: Venice Biennale, 2015.

How Much Does Wangechi Mutu’s Artwork Cost?

Wangechi Mutu’s artworks are highly sought after in the international art market. Prices vary depending on the medium, size, and provenance of the work. Here’s a general idea of her market:

  • Collages: Smaller works and early collages can range from $30,000 to $150,000.

  • Sculptures: Depending on the size and material, sculptures have sold at auction between $100,000 and over $600,000.

  • Large installations and bronzes: These are usually commissioned or sold to institutions, and prices are often confidential, but they are estimated in the millions.

Her auction record was set in 2018 when her piece Water Woman (2017), a bronze sculpture, sold for $980,000 at Sotheby’s.

How Does Wangechi Mutu Make Her Artwork?

Mutu’s creative process is layered and multifaceted. Here’s how she typically works across different media:

1. Collage and Mixed Media

Her collage technique involves:

  • Collecting images from fashion magazines, anatomical books, science texts, African art catalogs, and pop culture.

  • She cuts and layers them into surreal, grotesque figures, often using gouache, ink, glitter, acrylic, and mylar.

  • The result is both meticulously constructed and improvisational, what she calls a “drawing with found material.”

2. Sculpture

For her sculptures:

  • Mutu uses bronze, wood, clay, soil, resin, and organic materials like banana pulp or red earth from Kenya.

  • She collaborates with foundries and local craftspeople to create large-scale works.

  • She often molds her sculptures from clay and then casts them in bronze, combining ancient African artistic techniques with modern technology.

3. Film and Performance

Her films are often:

  • Stop-motion or hand-drawn animations.

  • Performed and voiced by the artist herself or collaborators like Santigold.

  • Narratives rooted in African mythology, environmental destruction, or science fiction.

How Many Artworks Does Wangechi Mutu Have?

While there is no official total number of works publicly documented, art databases and gallery archives suggest that Wangechi Mutu has created several hundred pieces across her career. This includes:

  • Over 150 known collage works

  • Dozens of sculptures and installations

  • Multiple video art and animations

  • Various drawings, paintings, and mixed-media pieces

Her works are included in the collections of over 50 major institutions, including:

  • Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

  • Whitney Museum of American Art

  • Brooklyn Museum

  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)

  • Tate Modern

  • The Met

  • Nasher Museum of Art

  • Studio Museum in Harlem

What Art Style is Wangechi Mutu Associated With?

Wangechi Mutu’s work straddles multiple genres and movements:

  • Afrofuturism: Reimagining African identities through science fiction, mythology, and speculative worlds.

  • Surrealism: Her collage and dreamlike sculptures carry clear influences from surrealist techniques.

  • Feminist Art: Challenging gender norms and celebrating female bodies and experiences.

  • Postcolonial Art: Addressing cultural displacement, race, and history.

  • Environmental and Bio-Art: Themes of ecology, decay, and mutation are central to her more recent sculptures.

While no single label fits, critics often describe her style as “Afro-surrealist feminist mysticism.”

What Materials Does Wangechi Mutu Use?

Mutu’s choice of materials is deeply symbolic and rooted in both organic and synthetic worlds. Common materials include:

  • Mylar (transparent plastic sheets) – for collages

  • Ink, acrylic, gouache, glitter

  • Found objects and photographs

  • Bronze – especially in recent public sculptures

  • Clay, soil, red earth, banana pulp

  • Beads, leather, horns

  • Video, animation software

Each material reflects her dual existence between continents, cultures, and philosophies.

Where Is Wangechi Mutu’s Artwork Located?

Wangechi Mutu’s works are held in prestigious collections across the globe. Some permanent or notable locations include:

  • The Met Museum, New YorkThe Seated Series

  • MoMA, New York – Collage works like Histology…

  • Brooklyn Museum, New York

  • Nasher Museum, North Carolina

  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)

  • Tate Modern, London

  • Studio Museum in Harlem

  • Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.

Additionally, her works are often part of major biennales and art fairs, including Venice Biennale and the Whitney Biennial.

Wangechi Mutu Legacy and Impact

Wangechi Mutu is not just an artist, she is a myth-maker, archivist, and healer. Her art acts as a mirror and a portal, inviting viewers into alternate futures and forgotten pasts. By merging science fiction with African traditions, she opens a space where Black femininity can flourish, unconfined and cosmic.

In a world that often silences or commodifies African voices, Wangechi Mutu reclaims those voices, reshaping them into new constellations. Her work isn’t just seen; it is felt, viscerally, spiritually, and politically.

If you’re standing before a Wangechi Mutu piece, take a breath and look deeper. The surface may shimmer with gold or glitter, but beneath lies centuries of memory, hope, pain, and an unwavering belief in transformation. image/wikiart.org

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