Kenyan-American artist Wangechi Mutu has been awarded the National Gallery's second Contemporary Fellowship, a two-year initiative developed with Art Fund and delivered in partnership with the Whitworth, The University of Manchester. The fellowship will see Mutu develop a new body of work through close engagement with both institutions' collections, culminating in her first UK institutional exhibition. The project will open at the National Gallery in London in October 2027 before traveling to the Whitworth in Manchester in spring 2028, with plans for an international tour.
This award is a landmark collaboration between major UK institutions, bridging London and Manchester to foster dialogue between historical collections and contemporary practice. It highlights a significant commitment by the National Gallery to engage with living artists and reflects a growing trend of museums partnering to share resources and audiences. The fellowship amplifies Mutu's influential, multidisciplinary work, which challenges representations of Black women and draws from art history, mythology, and Afro-futurism, to a broader public within a major institutional framework.