Senga NENGUDI was born in Chicago, bred in Los Angeles and living in the ‘70s in New York City with a year of foreign study in Tokyo, Japan.
Nengudi's African/African-American heritage insists on responding to the moment, making due with what is at hand and to move through survival to a thriving status with the skills of improvisation and prodding perseverance. Her exposure to Japanese Culture and ways of doing are still evident in her work as well.
“In my work I often utilize discarded, castaway materials. To shape shift paradigms I find different ways to use materials others consider useless or insignificant providing proof that the disregarded and disenfranchised may also have the resilience and reformative ability to find their poetic selves. With an improvisational impulse I gather and work my materials towards this end. Elements of my pieces are like individuals-fragmented, confused, straight forward, full, empty, misunderstood, frayed, titillating, bland, slick, radiating infinite possibilities, when combined with one another this way and that to make a whole, giving voice to those with no tongue to speak about the fragility of self.”
There is continuing interest in her late '70s Nylon Mesh RSVP (Panty Hose) series. This series mimics in abstract the sensuality and elasticity of the body and psyche, reflecting the toll that inside and outside pressures have on our mortal selves.
Her work has been seen in the traveling exhibits Blues for Smoke; Now Dig This: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980; WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution and the 54th Carnegie International 2004-2005. These seminal pieces were first exhibited at Linda Goode-Bryant's legendary Just Above Midtown Gallery.
Nengudi's current work is interactive in nature. Inviting viewers through multi-media installations to be co-participants in her exploration of the human relationship to the concept of time, space, movement and internal landscapes.
Nengudi is the recipient of the Women’s Caucus For Art-Lifetime Achievement Award; Anonymous Was A Woman Award; Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award an Art Matters grant and Artist in Residence at the Fabric Workshop and Museum.
Her work is in the permanent collections of Centre Pompidou (Paris); MoMA (NY); Brooklyn Art Museum (NY); Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh); Hammer Museum (Los Angeles); MoCA (Los Angeles) and Studio Museum in Harlem (NY).
About her artwork for RE-ACTION, she has written: “SSSS SSSS is my own Feminine Rhyme/Rhythm Re-Action to being pigeon holed in Western Texts.”
Senga Nengudi lives and works in Colorado Springs (USA).
Nengudi's African/African-American heritage insists on responding to the moment, making due with what is at hand and to move through survival to a thriving status with the skills of improvisation and prodding perseverance. Her exposure to Japanese Culture and ways of doing are still evident in her work as well.
“In my work I often utilize discarded, castaway materials. To shape shift paradigms I find different ways to use materials others consider useless or insignificant providing proof that the disregarded and disenfranchised may also have the resilience and reformative ability to find their poetic selves. With an improvisational impulse I gather and work my materials towards this end. Elements of my pieces are like individuals-fragmented, confused, straight forward, full, empty, misunderstood, frayed, titillating, bland, slick, radiating infinite possibilities, when combined with one another this way and that to make a whole, giving voice to those with no tongue to speak about the fragility of self.”
There is continuing interest in her late '70s Nylon Mesh RSVP (Panty Hose) series. This series mimics in abstract the sensuality and elasticity of the body and psyche, reflecting the toll that inside and outside pressures have on our mortal selves.
Her work has been seen in the traveling exhibits Blues for Smoke; Now Dig This: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980; WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution and the 54th Carnegie International 2004-2005. These seminal pieces were first exhibited at Linda Goode-Bryant's legendary Just Above Midtown Gallery.
Nengudi's current work is interactive in nature. Inviting viewers through multi-media installations to be co-participants in her exploration of the human relationship to the concept of time, space, movement and internal landscapes.
Nengudi is the recipient of the Women’s Caucus For Art-Lifetime Achievement Award; Anonymous Was A Woman Award; Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award an Art Matters grant and Artist in Residence at the Fabric Workshop and Museum.
Her work is in the permanent collections of Centre Pompidou (Paris); MoMA (NY); Brooklyn Art Museum (NY); Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh); Hammer Museum (Los Angeles); MoCA (Los Angeles) and Studio Museum in Harlem (NY).
About her artwork for RE-ACTION, she has written: “SSSS SSSS is my own Feminine Rhyme/Rhythm Re-Action to being pigeon holed in Western Texts.”
Senga Nengudi lives and works in Colorado Springs (USA).