Nontsikelelo Mutiti
Photo by Nana Afriyie re:publica 2018
Born1982 (age 41–42)
Harare, Zimbabwe
NationalityZimbabwean
Alma materZimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts Yale School of Art
AwardsJoan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Grant
2015
Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship
2012
Websitehttp://nontsikelelomutiti.com/

Nontsikelelo Mutiti (born 31 August 1982) is a graphic designer, artist and educator.[1] Her work focuses on web design, video, print, and book art. She often includes hair braiding in her design work, and is "interested in the nuanced differences between black cultures".[2] Her work includes printed materials for Black Lives Matter.[3][4] Since 2022, Mutiti has served as the Director of Graduate Studies in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art.[5]

Early life and education

Mutiti was born in 1982 in Harare, Zimbabwe.[6] She graduated from the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts with a diploma in multimedia art in 2007.[7] Mutiti earned an MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2012.[8]

Collaborations and publishing

Mutiti is a co-founder of the Zimbabwe Cultural Centre in Detroit, which encourages collaboration between artists in Detroit and Zimbabwe.[9]

With Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Mutiti co-founded Black Chalk & Co, a creative agency and publishing imprint.[10][11][12] Mushakavanhu and Mutiti also lead Reading Zimbabwe, a digital archive of Zimbabwean literature. Mutiti has served as artistic director and cofounder since Reading Zimbabwe was established in late 2016.[13]

Teaching

In June 2022, Mutiti was appointed to Yale University's faculty as the Director of Graduate Studies in Graphic Design. Mutiti became the third director of Yale's graduate graphic design program, following Professor Sheila Levrant de Bretteville’s historic thirty-two year tenure.[14] Mutiti previously served an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in the Graphic Design department, where she taught between 2017 and 2022.[15] Prior to VCU, Mutiti taught at Purchase College. She lives and works in New York City and Richmond, Virginia.

Work

Mutiti is best known for her artistic investigation of the technical crafts and social practices of hair braiding and self-fashioning in the African diaspora. For example, in a 2014 exhibition at Recess Art, Mutiti drew for inspiration from the space of an African hair braiding salon, as it might be found in New York City or Harare. Mutiti recreated aesthetic markers such as "walls painted in acid green or bright orange, magazine cut outs of celebrities, hair product models, flyers and posters from evangelical churches... [and] the ubiquitous small black television set on top of a cabinet playing Nollywood movies."[16] Mutiti's interests extend from the aesthetics of hair salons to the forms of community and exchange that take place in them. In 2015, as part of Performa, she worked together with Chimurenga and Pan African Space Station to create a functional pop-up salon which hosted a series of conversations.[17]

Print

  • A-A-A (folded posters, 2012)
  • Thread (screen print on linoleum tiles, 2012–2014)
  • African Hair Braiding Salon Reader (spiral bound booklet, laser print, 2014)
  • The Laundromat Project (2014)
  • RIP Kiki (2016)
  • Requiem (2016)
  • How to Wear Cloth (folded posters, fabric, paper, letterpress, 2016)
  • Bootleg This (book cloth, book board, laser printed booklet, compact disk, 2016)
  • 1960 Free (risograph and laser printing, spiral bound, 2016)
  • Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter (BWAforBLM) (identity, banner, and ephemera, 2016)

Video

  • Unbreakable (2011)
  • Pain Revisited Excerpt (2015)
  • Just Keep Swimming (2016)

Web

  • Laundromat Project (website redesign, 2014)
  • Braiding Braiding (2015)
  • Reading Zimbabwe (2016)

Awards & Residencies

  • Berlin Artist Program, BKP (2021)[18]
  • Soros Arts Fellowship, Open Society Foundation (2019)[19]
  • Joan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Grant (2015)[20]
  • Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship (2012)[21]
  • Laundromat Project Create Change Fellow (2012)[7]
  • Artist in Residence, Museom of Contemporary Art Detroit[7]
  • Artist in Residence, Recess[7]

Exhibitions

References

  1. ↑ Samarskaya, Ksenya (June 17, 2019). "Nontsikelelo Mutiti on Interrogating the Euro-centric Design Canon". AIGA Eye on Design. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  2. ↑ Morley, Madeleine (20 July 2017). "Nontsikelelo Mutiti's Book Designs Explore Black African Identity, the Aesthetics of Hair Braiding, and Brooklyn Police Brutality". Eye on Design. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  3. ↑ Best, Tamara (2 September 2016). "At New Museum, a Pop-Up Support System for Black Lives Matter". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  4. ↑ Steinhauer, Jillian (16 September 2016). "Reflections from Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter". Hyperallergic Media. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  5. ↑ "Nontsikelelo Mutiti appointed Director of Graduate Studies in Graphic Design". us14.campaign-archive.com. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  6. ↑ "Biography". Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Nontsikelelo Mutiti". The Laundromat Project. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  8. ↑ "Bulletin of Yale University: School of Art 2013-2014" (PDF). Bulletin of Yale University. p. 112. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  9. ↑ "Zimbabwe Cultural Centre in Detroit". Knight Foundation. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  10. ↑ Embuscado, Rain (30 May 2018). "Black Chalk & Co. Is Building An Archive Of Zimbabwe's Stories". New Inc. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  11. ↑ "Black Chalk & Co". Black Chalk & Co. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  12. ↑ "Black Chalk & Co. Is Building An Archive Of Zimbabwe's Stories". NEW INC. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  13. ↑ Mushakavanhu, Tinashe (31 August 2018). "Searching for Zimbabwe's scattered (hi)stories". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  14. ↑ "NONTSIKELELO MUTITI APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN GRAPHIC DESIGN". Yale School of Art. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
  15. ↑ "Nontsikelelo Mutiti". Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  16. ↑ "Nontsikelelo Mutiti: Ruka (To braid/ to knit/ to weave)". Recess Art. 2014.
  17. ↑ Mushakavanhu, Tinashe (2015-12-01). "Storytelling in the salon — Nontsikelelo Mutiti". Medium. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
  18. ↑ "BKP2021". www.daad.de. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  19. ↑ "Soros Arts Fellowship". www.opensocietyfoundations.org. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  20. ↑ "Nontsikelelo Mutiti". Laundromat Project. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  21. ↑ "Bulletin of Yale University: School of Art 2013-2014" (PDF). Bulletin of Yale University. p. 110. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  22. ↑ "Nontsikelelo Mutiti: Ruka (To braid/ to knit/ to weave)". Recess. 3 June 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
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