Wangechi Mutu: I Am Speaking, Are You Listening?

This monograph from DelMonico Books and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco centers on Wangechi Mutu’s recent work, as of its 2021 publication.

Claudia Schmuckli wrote the main text, with contributions from Isaac Julien and Mutu, and Tessa Lee of Public designed the book. It accompanies a presentation of new work by Mutu at the Legion, shown with a larger selection of earlier pieces, and the publisher calls it the most comprehensive book on the artist to date. It follows the female figures, hybrid beings and invented landscapes she has made over roughly two decades.

Mutu was born in Nairobi in 1972 and is known mainly for painting, sculpture, film and performance. She earned a BFA at Cooper Union in 1996 and a master’s degree in sculpture at Yale in 2000. The publisher describes her as at home in both Nairobi and New York and says her work is informed by Afrofuturism, posthumanism and feminism.