Wangechi Mutu's drawings couple collaged parts of idealized women clipped from fashion magazines with drawn and ink-soaked passages. They are rooted in the history of Kenyan traditional story telling and postcolonial horror stories. Subtly and painfully twisted images reference traditionally-clad African women. As a process of mutation is recognized through careful scrutiny, the images prove hard to stomach. Kenya's past of enormous resources and privilege now faces a crisis of confidence in tackling poverty, civil strife and political instability. This dichotomy is reflected in the work of Wangechi Mutu.

Wangechi Mutu is a Master's graduate of the Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT, and attended the Cooper Union for the Advancement of the Arts and Sciences, New York. Her work has been included in the second Johannesburg biennale, Translocations at CUNY, Magic City at Brent Sikkema Gallery in New York, Out of the Box at the Queens Museum, NY, and Africaine at the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY.