Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi is an African-American visual artist and curator renowned for her abstract sculptures and choreographed performances. 

Biography of Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi was born in 1943 in Chicago, Illinois. After her father died in 1949, she moved with her mother to Los Angeles and Pasadena. She faced challenges due to the segregated school system, often transferring between schools in these cities.

Nengudi graduated from Dorsey High School and pursued art and dance at California State University, Los Angeles, where she earned a bachelor's degree in 1967. She spent a year at Waseda University in Tokyo, learning about the Gutai Art Association. She returned to California State University and completed her Master of Arts degree in sculpture in 1971. During her college years, she interned at the Watts Towers Art Center and worked as an art instructor at the Pasadena Art Museum and the Fine Arts Community Workshop.

She soon relocated to New York City to further her career as an artist, frequently traveling between New York City and Los Angeles. Nengudi's career flourished in the radical, avant-garde Black art scenes of both cities during the 1960s and 1970s.

She collaborated with galleries like Pearl C. Woods Gallery in Los Angeles and Just Above Midtown in New York City. In the late 1970s, she joined the Studio Z collective, working alongside artists like Maren Hassinger and David Hammons. Nengudi's contributions to art have been recognized with several honors, including the 2023 Nasher Prize.

Today, Nengudi lives and works in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with her husband, Elliott Fittz.

Senga Nengudi's Art Style

Senga Nengudi's art style is characterized by its abstract nature, combining found objects with choreographed performances. Complicating cultural, ethnic, and racial classifications became as central to Nengudi's work as her exploration of gender constraints. She frequently integrates African, Asian, and Native American art forms, especially in her performance pieces and staged photographs. While her oeuvre addresses issues of gender, race, and ethnicity, Nengudi’s work emphasizes how these systemic forces impact everyone. Her pieces aim to inspire cross-cultural understanding and engagement for both men and women.