2013 Media Releases

The most comprehensive presentation of works by Kenyan-born, New York-based artist Wangechi Mutu opens to the public today at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) with Deutsche Bank as the Major Partner.

Widely considered to be one of the world’s leading African contemporary artists, Mutu uses collage, drawing, sculpture, installation and video to blend beauty, terror, surreal poetry and social criticism.

The exhibition, which runs until Wednesday August 14, 2013, at the MCA, brings together work from the last ten years of Mutu’s career and demonstrates why she is one of the most interesting artists of her generation. Through her thought-provoking approach to contemporary art, Mutu has been challenging international audiences throughout her career and in 2010, the Deutsche Bank Global Art Advisory Council named her the first ever Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year in recognition of the extraordinary oeuvre she had already amassed.

Mutu’s selection as Artist of the Year in 2010 opened a new chapter in the bank’s commitment to art and underlined its overarching philosophy in this area - promoting young contemporary artists from all over the world and making art accessible to a wide audience. Following her award, Mutu went on to present her first solo exhibition in Germany at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin before taking up an entire floor of Deutsche Bank’s modernised headquarters in Frankfurt with a selection of her works on paper.

During her time in Australia this week, Mutu will also team up with MCA chief curator Rachel Kent at a Sydney Writers’ Festival event on Thursday May 23 to discuss her work looking at themes of gender, desire and the female body.

Deutsche Bank’s support for emerging artists dates back more than 30 years. The bank focuses on talented young artists whose work pursues different and challenging paths and offers new perspectives. Today, Deutsche Bank’s corporate art collection - the largest in the world - features contemporary works that are innovative and relevant, 95 per cent of which are accessible to the public.

Mutu’s exhibition at the MCA follows the successful Deutsche Bank-sponsored Anish Kapoor exhibition which drew more than 90,000 visitors in less than four months earlier this year. Through Deutsche Bank’s role as the MCA’s first ever Education Partner, more than 5,600 students also experienced Kapoor with over 1,600 students participating in hour-long educator-led tours. Many more visited the MCA without leaving their classroom through digital excursions, also made possible through the bank’s support.

For more information on Deutsche Bank’s art program, go to db-artmag.com or db.com/art