Wangari Mathenge: Re - membering

Wangari Mathenge's first solo exhibition with the gallery, probing how culture, memory, and landscape are made and unmade. About Lévy Gorvy Dayan is delighted to announce Wangari Mathenge: Re-membering, the artist's first solo exhibition with the gallery, opening on the ground floor of 19 East 64th Street on September 17, 2026. The presentation will mark Wangari Mathenge's first public exhibition of sculpture and will debut five paintings. The exhibition's title Re-membering derives from the artist's series of the same name, which she began in the fall of 2024. It was inspired by Ngugi wa Thiong'o's 2009 book Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance—which focuses on the critical impacts of colonialism and slavery on the experience of diasporic and continental Africans, as well as strategies of resistance and recovery. The first part of Mathenge's project involved extensive study of Kenyan colonial literature and cultural objects from 1900 to 1963—the year of Kenya's independence from the United Kingdom—to examine and interrogate how history and her own cultural identity had been formed. Her research resulted in the first cycle of canvases (dated 2025) in the series, featuring colorful overhead views of lone figures in states of contemplation, surrounded by accumulated books, objects, and textiles. Read more Toggle Painting Sculpture