Artist Wangechi Mutu in her Brooklyn studio, 2012. Photo by Kathryn Parker Almanas.

The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University has organized Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu’s first survey in the United States. The exhibition Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey runs from March 21st to July 21st 2013

Mutu’s work is internationally renowned for exploring sensitive issues like race, colourism, the eroticization of the black female body, colonialism, gender, war, consumerism and globalization. She creates ” mysterious figures pieced together with human, animal, machine and monster parts. She often combines found materials and magazine cutouts with sculpture and painted imagery, sampling from sources as diverse as African traditions, international politics, the fashion industry and science fiction.”

The exhibition will present more than 50 works from the mid-1990s to the present, including collage, drawing, sculpture, installation and video. It will feature many of the artist’s most iconic collages drawn from major international collections, rarely seen early works and new creations.The exhibition also unveils the artist’s sketchbooks of intimate drawings that reveal her creative process and inspirations, on public view for the first time.

Other new highlights include Mutu’s first-ever animated video, created in collaboration with Santigold, commissioned by the Nasher Museum. Mutu also will transform the gallery into an environmental installation, including a monumental wall drawing, which evokes an enchanted forest and allows visitors to immerse themselves in the artist’s work.

Find the feature her Ciné Kenya wrote about the fascinating animation collaboration The End of eating Everything with musician Santigold here.

Below are some examples of the work she will be exhibiting:

Mixed-media collage on Mylar, 42 x 30 inches (106.68 x 76.20 cm). Deutsche Bank Collection, Germany. Image courtesy of Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects. © Wangechi Mutu.
Photo by Mathias Schormann.

Ink, acrylic, collage, and contact paper on Mylar; 81 x 52 inches (205.74 x 132.08 cm). San Francisco Museum of Art. Purchase through a gift of The Buddy Taub Foundation, Jill and Dennis Roach, Directors, 2005.184. Image courtesy of Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects. © Wangechi Mutu. Photo by Joshua White.

Packing blankets, twine, garbage bags, and gold string; dimensions variable. Courtesy of Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects. © Wangechi Mutu.

Other features Ciné Kenya has done about Wangechi Mutu’s work include an intimate interview at her home here, her collaboration with other prolific artists here, and her incredible work as the artistic director for a Pegasus Warning music video here.

Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey will travel to the Brooklyn Museum of Art in September 2013, the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami in April 2014 and the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in September 2014.

The exhibition is curated by Trevor Schoonmaker, Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum.