In this conversation with Leilah Babirye, hear about our Leilah Babirye exhibition and the artist's practice.
This exhibition highlights a defining aspect of Babirye's artistic practice: sculptures that incorporate the visual traits of African masks, merging the traditional with the contemporary. Babirye crafts with metal, ceramics, and hand-carved wood, adding rubber, nails, and other found objects to create contrasting textures. While rooted in the ruling kingdoms of present-day Uganda, Babirye's artwork goes beyond historical representation. Instead, it weaves personal history and resilience into ambitious sculptures that create space for queer joy and liberation.
Emerging from the artist's own experiences of struggle, Babirye's art transcends the personal. Through her experiments with form and materials, she is able to convey powerful emotions, provoke thought, and push the boundaries of creative expression.
This conversation is led by Natasha Becker, curator of African art, and followed by a short audience Q+A.
Image Credit: Leilah Babirye Senga Muzanganda (Auntie Muzanganda), 2020 Glazed ceramic, wire and found objects, 55 x 22 1/2 x 17 1/8 in. (139.7 x 57.15 x 43.51 cm). Property of a Private Collection, Boston. Leilah Babirye Nakatiiti from the Kuchu Grasshopper Clan, 2020. Wood, copper, nails, found objects, 63 3/4 x 29 1/2 x 8 in. (161.93 x 74.93 x 20.32 cm). Courtesy Gordon Robichaux, New York. Photos by Greg Carideo. Courtesy of the artist, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York and Gordon Robichaux, New York
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This exhibition highlights a defining aspect of Babirye's artistic practice: sculptures that incorporate the visual traits of African masks, merging the traditional with the contemporary. Babirye crafts with metal, ceramics, and hand-carved wood, adding rubber, nails, and other found objects to create contrasting textures. While rooted in the ruling kingdoms of present-day Uganda, Babirye's artwork goes beyond historical representation. Instead, it weaves personal history and resilience into ambitious sculptures that create space for queer joy and liberation.
Emerging from the artist's own experiences of struggle, Babirye's art transcends the personal. Through her experiments with form and materials, she is able to convey powerful emotions, provoke thought, and push the boundaries of creative expression.
This conversation is led by Natasha Becker, curator of African art, and followed by a short audience Q+A.
Image Credit: Leilah Babirye Senga Muzanganda (Auntie Muzanganda), 2020 Glazed ceramic, wire and found objects, 55 x 22 1/2 x 17 1/8 in. (139.7 x 57.15 x 43.51 cm). Property of a Private Collection, Boston. Leilah Babirye Nakatiiti from the Kuchu Grasshopper Clan, 2020. Wood, copper, nails, found objects, 63 3/4 x 29 1/2 x 8 in. (161.93 x 74.93 x 20.32 cm). Courtesy Gordon Robichaux, New York. Photos by Greg Carideo. Courtesy of the artist, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York and Gordon Robichaux, New York
In this conversation with Leilah Babirye, hear about our Leilah Babirye exhibition and the artist's practice.
This exhibition highlights a defining aspect of Babirye's artistic practice: sculptures that incorporate the visual traits of African masks, merging the traditional with the contemporary. Babirye crafts with metal, ceramics, and hand-carved wood, adding rubber, nails, and other found objects to create contrasting textures. While rooted in the ruling kingdoms of present-day Uganda, Babirye's artwork goes beyond historical representation. Instead, it weaves personal history and resilience into ambitious sculptures that create space for queer joy and liberation.
Emerging from the artist's own experiences of struggle, Babirye's art transcends the personal. Through her experiments with form and materials, she is able to convey powerful emotions, provoke thought, and push the boundaries of creative expression.
This conversation is led by Natasha Becker, curator of African art, and followed by a short audience Q+A.
Image Credit: Leilah Babirye Senga Muzanganda (Auntie Muzanganda), 2020 Glazed ceramic, wire and found objects, 55 x 22 1/2 x 17 1/8 in. (139.7 x 57.15 x 43.51 cm). Property of a Private Collection, Boston. Leilah Babirye Nakatiiti from the Kuchu Grasshopper Clan, 2020. Wood, copper, nails, found objects, 63 3/4 x 29 1/2 x 8 in. (161.93 x 74.93 x 20.32 cm). Courtesy Gordon Robichaux, New York. Photos by Greg Carideo. Courtesy of the artist, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York and Gordon Robichaux, New York
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This exhibition highlights a defining aspect of Babirye's artistic practice: sculptures that incorporate the visual traits of African masks, merging the traditional with the contemporary. Babirye crafts with metal, ceramics, and hand-carved wood, adding rubber, nails, and other found objects to create contrasting textures. While rooted in the ruling kingdoms of present-day Uganda, Babirye's artwork goes beyond historical representation. Instead, it weaves personal history and resilience into ambitious sculptures that create space for queer joy and liberation.
Emerging from the artist's own experiences of struggle, Babirye's art transcends the personal. Through her experiments with form and materials, she is able to convey powerful emotions, provoke thought, and push the boundaries of creative expression.
This conversation is led by Natasha Becker, curator of African art, and followed by a short audience Q+A.
Image Credit: Leilah Babirye Senga Muzanganda (Auntie Muzanganda), 2020 Glazed ceramic, wire and found objects, 55 x 22 1/2 x 17 1/8 in. (139.7 x 57.15 x 43.51 cm). Property of a Private Collection, Boston. Leilah Babirye Nakatiiti from the Kuchu Grasshopper Clan, 2020. Wood, copper, nails, found objects, 63 3/4 x 29 1/2 x 8 in. (161.93 x 74.93 x 20.32 cm). Courtesy Gordon Robichaux, New York. Photos by Greg Carideo. Courtesy of the artist, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York and Gordon Robichaux, New York
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