Wangechi Mutu - The SeasSpirit closes at Victoria Miro Venice
Published on 08/29/2026 at 12:41 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael MĂĽller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Wangechi Mutu stages one of her most concentrated suites of collage-paintings in the exhibition The SeasSpirit at Victoria Miro’s Venice space. The gallery describes the show as a return to the theme of water, with a cast of feminine spirits moving between myth and ecology. Victoria Miro exhibition page
The Venice series of water spirits
At Victoria Miro Venice, The SeasSpirit brings together new collage-paintings in which Mutu merges human, animal and marine forms into hybrid figures such as Mamamadonna, ConstellationHer, Mamawatoto and Snakebiter, all dated 2026. Gallery press text
The works were conceived specifically with Venice in mind, treating the lagoon city as a liminal zone where land and water, history and myth intertwine, and where her aquatic protagonists act as guardians, guides and unsettling presences within that unstable terrain. Artefuse review
Retrospective arc in recent series
In parallel with The SeasSpirit, Mutu’s recent work forms an informal retrospective arc that connects the collage-based figures in Venice to sculptural and installation projects such as her cosmological environment The End, Where All began, EdEN at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Biennale Arte 2026 entry
Her practice over the past decade has moved between large-scale bronze and earth sculptures, video, and paper-based collages, often centered on black female figures that are at once futuristic and grounded in specific Kenyan and diasporic histories, creating a continuous narrative rather than isolated projects.
All news and background on Wangechi Mutu
For more coverage of Wangechi Mutu’s exhibitions, biennial projects and institutional collaborations, explore the latest reports and background pieces in the AD HOC NEWS archive.
The work core in collage and sculpture
Mutu’s core method remains a collage process that cuts and recombines printed images, hand-drawn elements and textured materials, now extended into painted surfaces where ink, pigment and paper fragments build layered, skin-like grounds for her figures.
Alongside these works on paper and canvas, she has developed a sculptural vocabulary that uses bronze, wood, horn, soil and found objects, creating upright sentinels and sprawling earth bodies that occupy institutional galleries as well as outdoor sites.
Where the artist stands now
On balance, Wangechi Mutu’s recent bodies of work position her as a central figure in contemporary discussions of ecology, race and gender, with a practice that links collaged images, monumental sculptures and immersive installations into a consistent, evolving universe.
Key facts on Wangechi Mutu
- Artist: Wangechi Mutu
- Medium / Genre: Sculpture, collage-painting, video and installation
- Born: 1972, Nairobi, Kenya
- Place(s) of practice: Studio in Nairobi and New York
- Active since: 1990s, with wider recognition from the 2000s
- Key work groups: The NewOnes, will free Us, Intertwined, Black Soil Poems, The SeasSpirit
- Current/last exhibition: The SeasSpirit, Victoria Miro Venice, July 18–August 29, 2026
- Major collections: Tate (London), MoMA (New York), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC)
- Awards: National Gallery Contemporary Fellowship with Art Fund (announced 2026), Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year (2010)
- Next date: currently no announced date in the 30-day window
Frequently asked questions about Wangechi Mutu
Where is Wangechi Mutu’s work The SeasSpirit presented?
The SeasSpirit is presented at Victoria Miro’s Venice gallery space as a focused exhibition of new collage-paintings that engage with the lagoon city’s aquatic geography and myths.
How does Wangechi Mutu connect collage and sculpture in her recent work?
Mutu extends her collage language into three dimensions by using materials such as bronze, earth, horn and wood, translating hybrid figures from paper into sculptural presences that occupy institutional galleries and outdoor spaces.
Which institutions hold major works by Wangechi Mutu?
Key works by Mutu are held in public collections including Tate in London, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
