1. Senga Nengudi is an African-American visual artist and curator.
19 Facts About Senga Nengudi
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Senga Nengudi is best known for her abstract sculptures that combine found objects and choreographed performance.
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Senga Nengudi is part of a group of African-American avant-garde artists working in New York City and Los Angeles, from the 1960s and onward.
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Senga Nengudi was born Sue Irons in Chicago, Illinois in 1943.
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Senga Nengudi then spent a year studying at Waseda University in Tokyo, in the hopes of learning more about the Gutai Art Association.
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Senga Nengudi worked as an art instructor at the Pasadena Art Museum and the Fine Arts Community Workshop.
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Senga Nengudi moved to New York City shortly thereafter to continue her career as an artist, and she traveled back and forth between New York City and Los Angeles frequently.
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Senga Nengudi was part of the radical, avant-garde Black art scenes in both New York City and Los Angeles, during the 1960s and 1970s.
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Senga Nengudi worked with two galleries in particular: Pearl C Woods Gallery in Los Angeles, and Just Above Midtown in New York City.
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Senga Nengudi has described the creative energies of working with galleries like these that were, "trying to break down the walls" for the black artist community.
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In 1978, Senga Nengudi paired with Hassinger for a performance piece in which the two artists improvised movement while entangled inside a large web of pantyhose.
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Senga Nengudi often appeared anonymously in them herself as a genderless figure, defying definition.
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Senga Nengudi often combines African, Asian and Native American art forms in particular for her performance pieces and staged photographs.
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Senga Nengudi often cites African and Eastern philosophies as underpinning her work.
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Senga Nengudi designed costumes and headdresses made of pantyhose for the performers.
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Hammons and Hassinger played the roles of male and female spirits, with Senga Nengudi performing as a spirit to unite the genders.
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Senga Nengudi has curated exhibits, including the solo show of Kira Lynn Harris at the Cue Art Foundation in New York in the spring of 2009.
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Senga Nengudi writes poetry under the pseudonyms Harriet Chin, Propecia Lee, and Lily B Moor.
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Senga Nengudi has staged a large number of solo shows at galleries and museums in the United States and internationally.