Kenya
Mixed media
Ato Malinda
Practising artist in the mediums of performance art, installation, video, ceramic object-making and painting; and researcher.
EDUCATION
2014 Transart Institute, Plymouth University. Master of Fine Art (MFA), Creative Practice. Student representative. Critique group leader.
2000-2003 University of Texas at Austin. Undergraduate studies. Art History and Molecular Biology.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE ARTISTIC PRACTICE, Selected Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
2016
The Armory Show 2016, Circle Art Gallery Booth, New York.
African Perspectives , curated by Yvette Mutumba and Julia Grosse.Kalao Panafrican Creations, Bilbao, Spain. An Exploration of Self: her Mirror,curated by Jesús Ahedo.
2013
Savvy Contemporary , Berlin. GAMES , curated by Bonaventure S.B Ndikung.
2011
Aarhus Art Building, Denmark. Incommensurable Identities , curated by Jo Dam Kærgaard.
2009
Doual’art. Dans Mon Brun, curated by Didier Schaub.
Goethe Institute Kenya. Looking at Art; Looking at Africa; Looking at Art, curated by Sam Hopkins.
Museum Exhibitions
2017
Nairobi National Museum, Nairobi, Kenya. Future Africa: Visions in Time, curated by Nadine Siegert, Storm Janse Van Rensburg and Katharina Fink.
2016
The Reykjavik Art Museum , Iceland. THE MANY HEADED HYDRA. Imagination, Speculation, Dissolution of Space and Time,curated by Emma Haugh and Suza Husse.
Brooklyn Museum, New York. Agitprop! Curated by Saisha Grayson and Catherine J. Morris.
2015
Iwalewa Haus, Bayreuth, Germany. Future Africa: Visions in Time, curated by Nadine Siegert, Storm Janse Van Rensburg and Katharina Fink.
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. My Africa, curated by Kjeld Kjeldsen and Mathias Ussing Seeberg.
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. The Divine Comedy:Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists , curated by Simon Njami.
2014
Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main,The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, curated by Simon Njami.
SCAD Museum of Art.The Divine Comedy:Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, curated by Simon Njami.
2010
Karen Blixen Museum , Denmark. My World IMAGES.
Group Exhibitions
2017
Galerie SANAA , Utrecht, The Netherlands. Equilibre Fragile, Curated by Myriam Mihindou.
Art The Hague , The Netherlands. With Galerie SANAA.
1:54 Art Fair , London. With Circle Art Gallery.
Padiglione d’Arte Contemporenea, Milan, Italy. Africa.Raccontare un Mondo, curated by Christina Schenk.
Royal Anthenaeum Antwerp, Belgium. I travelled the world and the seven seas, curated by HELD.
TENT Rotterdam , The Netherlands. Among other things, I’ve taken up smoking, curated by Jesse van Oosten.
7th European Conference of African Studies , Basel, Switzerland. Makind Douala 2007-2017, curated by SUPSI and ICU.
!KAURU, Contemporary Art from Africa , Johannesburg, South Africa. Being Her(e): Meditations of African Femininities , curated by Refilwe Nkomo and Thato Mogotsi.
The Heong Gallery , Cambridge, England. When the Heavens Meet the Earth. Selected works from the Sina Jina Collection of Contemporary Art. Collector – Robert Devereux.
Stichting KunstWerk , Schiedam, The Netherlands. Gusto45 presents Peep Show , curated by Gusto45.
Kiosk, Ghent, Belgium. Show Me Your Archive and I Will Tell You Who is in Power , curated by Wim Waelput and Natasa Petresin-Bachelez.
Art Paris Art Fair Paris. Curated by Marie-Ann Yemsi.
La Villette , Paris. Afrique Capitales, curated by Simon Njami.
2016
The Project Space Festival, Berlin. THE MANY HEADED HYDRA. Imagination, Speculation, Dissolution of Space and Time,curated by Emma Haugh and Suza Husse.
AKAA Art Fair, Paris. With Circle Art Gallery.
1:54 Art Fair, London. With Circle Art Gallery.
Johannesburg Art Fair, South Africa. With Circle Art Gallery.
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece. Fireflies in the Night Take Wing, curated by Robert Storr, Barbara London, Kalliopi Mirioudaki and Francesca Pietropaolo.
Overgaden, Copenhagen, Denmark. COLAB2, curated by Mácio Carvalho.
2015
BRASS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels. African Odysseys, curated by Marie-Ann Yemsi.
Art15 , London. With Circle Art Gallery.
Cape Town Art Fair , with Circle Art Gallery.
2014
Goethe Institute Kenya, Festival of Performance and Media Arts.
Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon. Queer Lisboa 18.
Maxim Gorky Theatre, Berlin. Giving Contours to Shadows , curated by Bonaventure S.B Ndikung.
Dak’Art Biennial 2014 Producing the Common and Cabinet of Curiosity, curated by Elise Atangana, Smooth Ugochukwu Nzewi and Abdelkader Damani .
Palais des Beaux Arts (Bozar). Where We’re At , curated by Christine Eyene.
2013
Afiriperfoma Biennial, Zimbabwe.
2012
Roots Contemporary , Brussels.
2011
Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK), Berlin. The Urban Cultures of Global Prayers, curated by Christian Hanussek.
Townhouse Gallery , Cairo, Egypt. One Minutes Africa.
Art 42 Basel Off. FOCUS 11, Contemporary Art Africa, curated by Christine Eyene.
South London Gallery. Contemporary Africa on Screen, curated by Jennifer Bajorek.
Galerie Le Manège, Dakar, Senegal. Kaddou Diggen, La Paroles aux Femmes, Women Speak Out
curated by Christine Eyene.
2010
Salon Urbain de Douala, SUD2010. Douala, Cameroon.
II Trienal Luanda. Luanda, Angola.
2009
DARB1718, Centre for Contemporary Art,Cairo, Egypt.
Beyond the Desert , curated by Simon Njami.
TheGoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi, Kenya. PROBE: Amnesia Platform 7 curated by Simon Njami.
2008
Triangle Arts Trust,Urban Wasanii, Mombasa, Kenya.
NOVAS Contemporary Art Centre , London. Baby, Can You Hear Me.
2006
Bonzo Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya.
GRANTS, SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS
2016
Smithsonian Institution, African Art Award , winner.
‘The Future of Europe’ Art Prize shortlisted.
NTU CCA Singapore Residencies Programme, winner.
2015
Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, Awarded.
2014
Celeste Prize 2014, Shortlisted for Video & Animation.
2012
The One Minutes Awards, Amsterdam 2012, winner, ‘Moving Photography.’
Transart Community Scholarship , Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Creative Practice.
2010
Instituto Buena Bista, research and travel grant, Curaçao, Dutch Antilles.
Danish Centre for Culture and Development, production and travel grant.
2009
German Cultural Secretary German Embassy, Kenya, travel grant for Art Forum Berlin.
Kenya Community Development Fund/Changamoto Arts Fund, production grant
Ato Malinda (born 1981, Kenya), lives and works in Hull (UK). She has a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from Transart Institute, New York. Her works consist of performance, drawing, painting, installation, and video. Through her diverse practice, Mawimbi investigates the hybrid nature of African identity, contesting notions of authenticity. She has worked with western museums to dispel notions of a Unitarian Africa, so often seen in ethnographic exhibitions. In addition to this she also focuses on gender and female sexuality. She is inspired by LGBTQ communities whose stories are rarely told.
Malinda was one of the honourees of the inaugural African art awards given out by the Smithsonian Institution (2016). She was also one of the awardees of the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2015) and won the One Minutes Award (2012) for moving photography. Her solo shows include “Games” (2013) at Savvy Contemporary which centred round sexual abuse, and “Incommensurable Identities” (2011) at Aarhus Art Building which examined tenuous relations between Europe and Africa. She has exhibited in group exhibitions at Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main (2014), the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution (2015), Salon Urbain de Douala in Cameroon (2010), Brooklyn Museum (2016) and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen (2015), among others.
