Kenyan-born Wangechi Mutu combines fashion magazine imagery and ink to create elegantly grotesque collages of the female body. Surreal and distinctive, the works at once reference ethnology, war, and portrayals of the female figure in mass media. Realized both on Mylar paper and directly on the wall, Mutu’s seductive hybrids—swan necks, talons for feet, distended bellies, mechanical appendages—use beauty to smuggle in the politics of violence and mutilation.
In the 1990s Mutu explored stereotypes of femininity and her African heritage through performative works. Since then she has primarily made drawings. That’s my death mask you’re wearing (2004) is emblematic of the collages—kaleidoscopic pools of reds and browns form a lithe female framed by tufts of savannah grass. The vamping body and magazine cutout eyes and lips imply glamour, yet swirls of ink create the impression of skin grafts. A missing arm, protruding prostheses, raw face, and heavy diamond earring support a darker narrative about the bloody effects of conflicts in Africa waged over scarce resources controlled by the West. Ever-sensuous, Mutu’s drawings are powerful critiques of contemporary media and cultural genocide.
Wangechi Mutu received her MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT in 2000. Solo shows include Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, CA and Jamaica Center for the Arts and Learning, Queens, NY, both in 2003. Group exhibitions in 2004 include Fight or Flight, Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, New York, NY; Pin-up, Tate Modern, London, England; and Figuratively, The Studio Museum, Harlem, NY. The artist lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Robert Hodge is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores themes of memory and commemoration. Born in Houston, Texas and raised in the City’s Third Ward district, the artist studied visual art at the Pratt Institute in New York and the Atlanta College of Art before returning to Houston. Hodge has exhibited his work in numerous national and international institutions. The artist has also received grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Houston Arts Alliance and The Idea Fund. Hodge currently lives and works in Houston. Hodge’s current projects include an album he executive produced called “Two and 1⁄2 years: A Musical Celebration to the Spirit of Juneteenth” and his traveling installation called “The Beauty Box.”
View an interview at his Project Row House Installation View Robert’s work

Isaac Julien was born in London, England, where he continues to live and work. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as a founding member of the Sankofa Film/Video Collective, a seminal U.K. group that explored new ways of representing black identity. Isaac Julien’s connection to ArtPace began in 1999. In that year he was chosen as an ArtPace resident, and while in San Antonio produced The Long Road to Mazatlán (1999), a work that went on to earn him a Turner Prize nomination in 2000.
From his critically acclaimed documentaries Looking for Langston (1989) and BaadAsssss Cinema (2002), to his multi-channel installations Paradise Omeros (2002) and altimore(2003), Julien’s work combines dreamlike rhythms and lush imagery in stylized narratives. His films subvert the cinematic gaze to address issues of immigration, race, gender, desire, and the politics of representation.
Widely considered to be one of Britain’s foremost contemporary artists, Isaac Julien has exhibited extensively around the world. Paradise Omeros debuted at Documenta11 in Kassell, Germany. Julien has had solo exhibitions at such venues as the Tate Gallery, London, England; the Aspen Art Museum, CO; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; the BildMuseet, Umeå, Sweden; and the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA. Julien has also served as a visiting lecturer at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA and is a 2001 recipient of both the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts and the Frameline Lifetime Achievement Award (2002).