Mwangi Hutter

Artist duo, Mwangi Hutter (b. 1975 in Nairobi, Kenya and b. 1964, Ludwigshafen/Rhein, Germany; live and work in Germany), fused names in 2005 (Ingrid Mwangi and Robert Hutter) to become one artist. Working across photography, video, installation and performance, the couple’s unification resists fixed notions of identity based on race, gender, and culture. Together they create a visual language of interrelationship to reflect on changing societal and cultural realities.   

The duo realizes their work as a unit arising from two bodies, two minds, dual histories, and the continuous merge of expression. Presenting a pacification of contrasts: female-male, African-European, contrasts that are reflective of separated borders, and subjects in both a political and personal sense.   

Their work has been exhibited at The Brooklyn Museum (New York, New York), Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (Washington D.C.), Fowler Museum (Los Angeles, CA), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France),  Museu  Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon, Portugal), Museum für Moderne Kunst (Frankfurt, Germany), Palais des Beaux-arts (Paris, France), Art Institute Chicago (Chicago, IL), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, Japan), Yokohama Museum of Art (Yokohama, Japan), and Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (Las Palmas, Spain).  

Their work has been featured in solo exhibitions globally, including Ingrid Mwangi – Video Installation, Museum for African Art, New York, NY (2003); Video Art – Ingrid Mwangi Robert Hutter, GoDown Arts Center, Nairobi, Kenya (2003); Intruders, Goethe-Institut, Nairobi, Kenya (2009); Ingrid Mwangi Robert Hutter, Constant Triumph, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA (2011); Cloth to Cover Every Stone, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA (2015); Burning Desire to Be Touched, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C. (2015); Schwarz, Rot, Gold? Box #3: Mwangi Hutter, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany (2019); and MWANGI HUTTER, Close by Between Us, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain (2020). 

They have shown in group exhibitions including Unerasable Memories – A Historic Look at the Videobrasil Collection, Sesc Pompeia, São Paulo, Brazil (2015); Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME (2015); I Am . . . Contemporary Women Artists of Africa, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C. (2019); Return to Nature, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. (2020); Detour 2.0: A Journey through Creative Catalysts, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2022); I AM MILLI, Contemporary Art Society, Osnabrück, Germany (2022); and Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2024), which traveled to MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (2025), and Barbican Centre, London, UK (2026). They have also participated in international biennials, including the Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba (2015); Off Biennial, Cairo, Egypt (2015); and B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, Frankfurt, Germany (2017).  
 
Their work is held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL), National Gallery Prague (Prague, Czech Republic), National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, DC), Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (Washington, DC), Spelman College Museum of Fine Art (Atlanta, GA), and the Yokohama Museum of Art (Yokohama, Japan).