Wangechi MutuIn Two Canoe, 2022.
Photo: courtesy of the artist & Gladstone Gallery, New York, Brussels, Los Angeles & Seoul

Wangechi Mutu
Intertwined

Giovanni Aloi

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It’s visceral. Wangechi Mutu’s exhibition Intertwined, at the New Museum in New York, oozes with resolutely posthuman, Afrofuturistic fabulations: alien-cyborgs, animal-vegetal-polygender-iconic beings whose bodily boundaries by far exceed classical anatomical conceptions, and fragmented identities brimming with otherworldly vibrancy. From the colourful multilayered collages on Mylar and evocative video installations to the hunting sculptures, Mutu’s body of work is as brilliantly original as it is thought-provoking.

Featuring over a hundred pieces spanning a twenty-five-year career — the first time all seven floors of the New Museum were dedicated to one artist — Intertwined will be remembered as an epoch-defining exhibition. Other commentators have already remarked on the importance of the exhibition as a confirmation of Mutu’s prominent role in the contemporary art scene. Her audacious competence and relentless determination to craft a new aesthetic language are key to her aesthetic and conceptual success. Floor after floor, Intertwined unfolds in a skilful conceptual crescendo. It never gets tired or dull. The experience is breathtaking; both enlightening and intense. Shows like this are truly rare.

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