Ingrid Mwangi (born 1975) is a German artist, of Kenyan-German descent. She works with photography, sculpture and in multimedia, performance, and installation art. In 2005, she co-founded ''Mwangi Hutter.''

Early life and education

Ingrid Njeri Mwangi was born in 1975 in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

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to a German mother and a Kenyan father. She moved to Germany at the age of 15. She attended

Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar The Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar or HBKsaar, (English: ''Saar College of Fine Arts'') is an art and design university in the German State of Saarland. The degree course offers a choice of different topics: Fine arts, communication desi ...

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is S ...

, Germany, from 1996–2002.

Career

Mwangi works and lives in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

with her husband and collaborator Robert Hutter. They have four children. Mwangi's work is concerned with social conventions and identity. She participated in the 2007

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

exhibition ''

Global Feminisms ''Global Feminisms'' was a feminist art exhibition that originally premiered at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, New York City, United States, in March 2007. ''Global Feminisms'' was the first international ...

''. Her 2001 series of photographs, ''Static Drift'', was included. The work makes use of images evoking national and racial identities projected onto her body. Mwangi's 2000 work ''Neger Don't Call Me'' features photographs of her face covered with masks made from her

dreadlocks Dreadlocks, also known as locs or dreads, are rope-like strands of hair formed by locking or braiding hair. Origins Some of the earliest depictions of dreadlocks date back as far as 1600–1500 BCE in the Minoan Civilization, one of Europe' ...

''Mwangi Hutter''

In 2005, she and her husband Robert Hutter merged their biographies and names to form one artist, ''Mwangi Hutter''. As a creative strategy to resist fixed notions of identity based upon gender, race, and cultural backgrounds, ''Mwangi Hutter'' strategically merged names and biographies to become one artist. They consciously use themselves as the sounding board to reflect on changing societal realities, creating an aesthetics of self-knowledge and interrelationship. ''Mwangi Hutter'' reflect on the subjects of border-crossing and finding identity, which both can be understood in a political, as well as a very personal, intimate sense. Their works can be seen as a vision of unification and the pacification of contrasts: female-male, African-European, black-white and the borders separating you and me.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

*2002: Ingrid Mwangi - Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken, Germany *2006: Man of War - Video, Installation, Fotografie - Kunstverein Ingolstadt, Ingolstadt, Germany *2007: IngridMwangiRobertHutter: Select Videos, 2006-2007 - BRIC Rotunda Gallery, New York City, New York, United States *2007: MASK - James Cohan Gallery, New York City, New York, United States *2007: GOTH - Reality of the Departed World - Yokohama Museum of Art, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan *2008: IngridMwangiRobertHutter - Along the Horizon - Galleria Il Trifoglio Nero, Genoa, Italy *2009: IngridMwangiRobertHutter: Masked - Emerson Gallery at

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

, Clinton, New York, United States *2009: In the Eye of the Beholder - Darb 1718 Contemporary Art and Culture Center, Cairo, Egypt *2009: Intruders -

Goethe-Institut The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and ...

Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya *2009: Sleepers on the way - Goethe-Institut Tansania, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania *2011: Constant Triumph -

Spelman College Museum of Fine Art The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art is a museum located on the Spelman College campus in Atlanta. The museum is housed in the Camille O. Hanks Cosby Academic Center named after philanthropist Camille Cosby, who had two daughters attend Spelman ...

, Atlanta, Georgia, United States *2013: Mwangi Hutter - Single Entities / @ Salon - ALEXANDER OCHS GALLERIES BERLIN , BEIJING, Berlin, China

References

External links

Official website
Book chapter about Mwangi Hutter: by BM Van Hoesen in "German Colonialism in Africa and its Legacies", 2023 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mwangi, Ingrid 1975 births Living people German contemporary artists German people of Kenyan descent Kenyan artists Kenyan people of German descent Kenyan women artists People from Nairobi Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar alumni