Artology: Wangechi Mutu, Provocative Kenyan Artist

I've been a huge fan of hers for a few years now. She's been a real influence on my work, even in comic books. Take a peak.

Saatchi Gallery Website (Paraphrased):

Wangechi Mutu uses collage as a means of both physically and conceptually bringing layered depth to her work. Using images cut from FASHION and porn magazines, National Geographic, and books about African art, Mutu pieces together figures which are both elegant and perverse. Individual body parts comprised of found 'objects' are made to seem like odd prosthetics glued over torsos and limbs drawn in ink and paint.

Wangechi Mutu examines the perception of female sexuality. Her amalgamated portraits capitalise on the contradictions of role expectations within a western media ideal: sex goddess v.s. virginal mother. With her own idiosyncratic style along with an exaggerated flourish of FASHION illustration, her work inspires an apocalyptic glamour, fusing tribal ‘primitivism’ with the exotica of radical chic.

Featured in Vanity Fair and pregnant in Vogue’s Shape Issue in March 2009

All images courtesy of Saatchi Gallery.