Featuring more than 100 works, a sprawling retrospective at the New Museum highlights the Kenyan-born artist’s stunning surrealism
The subtitle of the retrospective exhibition “Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined” at the New Museum is taken from a 2003 work on paper by the artist. It depicts two young, barely clothed female club-goers with the heads of less-than-friendly dogs orally sharing something resembling a belt. In its way, the painting encapsulates the character of the entire show: grotesque, brilliantly imaginative, carefully crafted, and beautiful in a jarring way, with the forces of African nature and Western artifice doing an impassioned pas de deux.
Image: Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined, 2023
Exhibition view: New Museum, New York
Courtesy New Museum
Photo: Dario Lasagni
