Senga Nengudi

Why this artist matters now

Senga Nengudi constructs abstract sculptures from found objects, materials that gain their full meaning when activated by choreographed performance. Working across New York and Los Angeles from the 1960s onward, she has been a central figure in a network of African-American avant-garde artists whose practices resisted the dominant sculptural conventions of their time. Her best-known works combine stretched nylon mesh and sand, forming bodily, tensile forms that exist in a suspended state between object and action. The Studio Museum in Harlem has presented her work as part of broader reckonings with this generation's contribution to American art history.

Source: Spruth Magers · Trust score: 100% · Updated 2mo ago