Grace Ndiritu

Ndiritu studied textile art at Winchester School of Art, UK and De Ateliers, Amsterdam. Her teachers included Marlene Dumas, Steve McQueen, Tacita Dean and Stan Douglas.{{cite web |last1=van den Boogerd |first1=Dominic |date=2016 |title=De Ateliers Guest Tutors |url= http://www.de-ateliers.nl/en/guidance/studio-visits/list-of-guest-teachers |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817005850/http://www.de-ateliers.nl/en/guidance/studio-visits/list-of-guest-teachers |archive-date=17 August 2016 |access-date=20 July 2016 |website=www.de-ateliers.nl/ |publisher=De Ateliers |language=English, Dutch |location=Amsterdam}}{{Cite news |last=Jansen |first=Charlotte |date=May 6, 2023 |title=Artist Grace Ndiritu: 'Since the pandemic, people are more receptive to healing' |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/f2c9e87a-4e2a-4ed6-9058-326c15c17bcd |access-date=June 13, 2023}}

A result of this research was her ambitious post-internet living research/live art project, The Ark: Center For Interdisciplinary Experimentation,{{cite web |url=http://thearkcenterexperiment.com/ |title=Grace Ndiritu |publisher=Thearkcenterexperiment.com |date= |accessdate=26 February 2022 |archive-date=24 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224021221/http://thearkcenterexperiment.com/ |url-status=live }} that took place from 1 to 10 July 2017. Her ideas between the rural and urban have also been documented in Whitechapel Gallery's publication: Documents of Contemporary Art: The Rural (2019) MIT Press.{{Cite book |url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/rural |title=The Rural | the MIT Press |date=12 March 2019 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=9780262537162 |series=Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art |access-date=28 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190117162316/http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/rural |archive-date=17 January 2019 |url-status=live}}

In 2012, Ndiritu began creating a new body of works under the title Healing The Museum.{{cite web |date=25 September 2020 |title=Western Museums Are Problematic: What Can be Done to Change Them? |url=https://elephant.art/grace-ndiritu-on-how-western-museums-can-change-25092020/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020143649/https://elephant.art/grace-ndiritu-on-how-western-museums-can-change-25092020/ |archive-date=20 October 2020 |access-date=22 October 2020}} The book '[https://www.mottodistribution.com/shop/healing-the-museum-grace-ndiritu-motto-books-9782940672448.html 'Healing The Museum] is the first monograph looking at Grace Ndiritu’s diverse practice over the last twenty years, published on the occasion of her mid-career exhibition at S.M.A.K. Ghent'' in 2023.

In 2019 Ndiritu led a group of museum directors, academics, activists and artists, in a reading group with meditation at the controversial Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium, as part of the conference Everything Passes Except the Past organized by Goethe Institut, on the restitution of objects and human remains from Europe back to Congo.{{cite web|url=https://www.goethe.de/ins/be/fr/ver.cfm?event_id=21542499&fuseaction=events.detail&|title=Atelier: Tout passe sauf le passé - Goethe-Institut Belgien|access-date=15 May 2019|archive-date=26 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220226163400/https://www.goethe.de/ins/be/fr/ver.cfm?event_id=21542499&fuseaction=events.detail|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=About Grace Ndiritu|url=http://gracendiritu.com|website=gracendiritu.com/|publisher=cargo|access-date=15 May 2016|archive-date=5 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505201323/http://www.gracendiritu.com/|url-status=live}}

Ndiritu declared that 2020 was The Year of Black Healing. In honor of this, she led a year long programme of exhibitions, performances and talks in collaboration with institutions across the world, which was featured on The Sunday Times radio show with Mariella Frostrup and Elephant magazine. and [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001lqt4 BBC Woman's hour] in 2023 for her billboard project.

In 2017 she was invited to give a talk on her work at Fondation Ricard in Paris, alongside other renown speakers such as Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev - director of Documenta 13 art exhibition and Fabrice Hergott - director of Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris.{{cite web|url = https://www.franceculture.fr/conferences/fondation-dentreprise-ricard/le-sens-de-lhistoire-grace-ndiritu|title = "Le sens de l'Histoire", Grace Ndiritu|date = 28 June 2017|access-date = 4 August 2017|archive-date = 5 August 2017|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170805015436/https://www.franceculture.fr/conferences/fondation-dentreprise-ricard/le-sens-de-lhistoire-grace-ndiritu|url-status = live}}

She has also written essays about museums and exhibition making, Healing The Museum (2016), Ways of Seeing: A New Museum Story for Planet Earth (2017) and Institutional Critique: Racism & Spiritual Practice in the art world (2019).{{cite web|url= https://independent.academia.edu/GraceNdiritu|title=Grace Ndiritu - Academia.edu|access-date=20 July 2016|archive-date=2 November 2018|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181102093847/http://independent.academia.edu/GraceNdiritu|url-status=live}} Her most ambitious shamanic performance to date, A Meal For My Ancestors: Healing The Museum, included staff members of the U.N., NATO and EU parliament, activists, and refugees at Thalielab, Brussels (2018). A briefing paper on climate change and refugees directly inspired by the performance, written by one of the participants, has now been published by the EU Parliament Research Services (May 2018).{{Cite web |url= https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5w_w1Ihy06bcF9GakkwSlI4akxZNjJVWEN2T1VyWEx5OW1r/view |title=The Concept of Climate Refugee: Towards a Possible Solution |access-date=1 June 2018 |archive-date=26 February 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220226163413/https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5w_w1Ihy06bcF9GakkwSlI4akxZNjJVWEN2T1VyWEx5OW1r/view |url-status=live }} To date Ndiritu's performances have taken place at Fundacion Tapies, Barcelona (2017),{{cite web |url=http://www.barcelonadot.com/fundacio-tapies-sonando-que-el-museo-vuelve-a-la-vida-la-vida-interior-de-los-objetos/ |title=FUNDACIÓ TÀPIES / Soñando que el museo vuelve a la vida: La vida interior de los objetos – Barcelonadot |access-date=4 August 2017 |archive-date=5 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805055821/http://www.barcelonadot.com/fundacio-tapies-sonando-que-el-museo-vuelve-a-la-vida-la-vida-interior-de-los-objetos/ |url-status=dead }} Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Paris (2016),{{cite web|last1=Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers|title=A Therapeutic Townhall Meeting: Healing the Museum|url= http://www.leslaboratoires.org/en/article/a-therapeutic-townhall-meeting-healing-the-museum-by-grace-ndiritu/le-printemps-des-laborato|year=2016|access-date=15 May 2016|archive-date=5 August 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170805015804/http://www.leslaboratoires.org/en/article/a-therapeutic-townhall-meeting-healing-the-museum-by-grace-ndiritu/le-printemps-des-laborato|url-status=live}} Glasgow School of Art (2015),{{cite web|last1=Glasgow School of Art, Reid Gallery|title=A Return to Normalcy: Birth of a New Museum|url=http://www.gsa.ac.uk/life/gsa-events/events/g/grace-ndiritu-a-return-to-normalcy-birth-of-a-new-museum/|access-date=15 May 2016|archive-date=29 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629173041/http://www.gsa.ac.uk/life/gsa-events/events/g/grace-ndiritu-a-return-to-normalcy-birth-of-a-new-museum/|url-status=live}} Galveston Artist Residency Garden, Texas (2015),{{cite web|last1=Schnell|first1=Eric|title=Island Time: Galveston Artist Residency – The First Four Years|url=http://camh.org/exhibitions/island-time-galveston-artist-residency-%E2%80%93-first-four-years#.V49C97h9602|website=camh.org|publisher=Contemporary Art Museum Houston|location=Texas|language=English|date=2015|access-date=20 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160531123015/http://camh.org/exhibitions/island-time-galveston-artist-residency-%E2%80%93-first-four-years#.V49C97h9602|archive-date=31 May 2016|url-status=dead}} Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2014),{{cite web|last1=Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw|title=Spring Rites: Birthing of a New Museum (Part 1)|url=https://www.britishcouncil.pl/en/events/performance-grace-ndiritu|access-date=15 May 2016|archive-date=5 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805021826/https://www.britishcouncil.pl/en/events/performance-grace-ndiritu|url-status=live}} Musee Chasse & Nature, Paris (2013),{{cite web|last1=Musee Chasse & Nature, Paris|title=Women Who Run with Wolves|url=http://www.gracendiritu.com/Performance/Musee-Chasse-Nature-Paris-2013|date=2013|access-date=15 May 2016|archive-date=5 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005022235/http://www.gracendiritu.com/Performance/Musee-Chasse-Nature-Paris-2013|url-status=live}} Centre Pompidou, Paris (2013).{{cite web|last1=Centre Pompidou, Paris|title=For a Shamanic Cinema: alternative strategies in the practice of performance|url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/resource/cidxqr/rKEeLj|date=2013|access-date=15 May 2016|archive-date=5 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805015726/https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/resource/cidxqr/rKEeLj|url-status=live}}

Her archive of over forty "hand-crafted" videos are largely held in the archive of LUX - British Artists Film/Video archive.{{cite web|last1=Ndiritu|first1=Grace|title=LUX Artists Moving Image|url=http://lux.org.uk/collection/artists/grace-ndiritu|website=lux.org.uk|publisher=LUX|location=London|language=English|access-date=20 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160804003451/http://lux.org.uk/collection/artists/grace-ndiritu|archive-date=4 August 2016|url-status=dead}} Notably her video The Nightingale has been shown during the 51st Venice Biennale (2005){{cite book|last1=Ndiritu|first1=Grace|title=Grace Ndiritu|date=2005|publisher=Ikon Gallery Ltd|location=Birmingham|isbn=1-904864-09-0|page=14|url=http://www.chisenhale.org.uk/shop/publication_details.php?id=14|access-date=20 July 2016|archive-date=19 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419032516/http://chisenhale.org.uk/shop/publication_details.php?id=14|url-status=live}} and is now housed the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.{{cite book|last1=LaGamma|first1=Alicia|last2=Giuntini|first2=Christine|title=Essential art of African textiles|date=2008|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=9780300149623|language=English|oclc=244293227}}

Furthermore, her video Still Life White Textiles (2007) has been used as a reference in art appreciation and art history classes throughout colleges and universities since 2010.{{cite book|last1=Sayre|first1=Henry M|title=A World of Art|date=2010|publisher=Pearson, Prentice Hall|location=London|isbn=9780205887576|edition=6th, 7th|url= http://www.alibris.com/A-World-of-Art-Henry-M-Sayre/book/7306803|language=English|access-date=20 July 2016|archive-date=24 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124020624/http://www.alibris.com/A-World-of-Art-Henry-M-Sayre/book/7306803|url-status=live}}

For an entire year 2023 to 2024 Ndiritu took over the Foto Museum Antwerp to create a 500 sqm architectural installation using 200 photographs from the collection entitled [https://fomu.be/expos/grace-ndiritu-reimagines-the-fomu-collection Grace Ndiritu Reimagines the FOMU Collection]. Her own photo series A Quest For Meaning which was acquired by FOMU in 2022 was incorporated into its making. The exhibition was well received in the art and photographic international community alike including in "[https://www.ft.com/content/f2c9e87a-4e2a-4ed6-9058-326c15c17bcd The Financial Times]".

Since 2010, Ndiritu has been creating an encyclopaedic archive of images, entitled A Quest For Meaning (AQFM). It is a universal narrative, a creation story from the beginning of time. Told through photography, it tells "stories" between similarly disparate objects and events from the Big Bang until now, by conjuring up and making new connections between them. Closely connected to her interests in the moving image, the various themes in AQFM perpetually expand to create photographic constellations.{{cite web|last1=Caldwell|first1=Ellen C.|title=New American Painting|url=https://newamericanpaintings.com/blog/slippery-space-grace-ndiritu%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cbright-young-things%E2%80%9D|website=newamericanpaintings.com|publisher=New American Painting|location=Boston|language=English|date=April 2016|access-date=20 July 2016|archive-date=21 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921031926/https://www.newamericanpaintings.com/blog/slippery-space-grace-ndiritu%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cbright-young-things%E2%80%9D|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Laurence|first1=Robin|title=Time travels in Contemporary Art Gallery's Blue Hour|url=https://www.straight.com/arts/1056341/time-travels-contemporary-art-gallerys-blue-hour|access-date=12 April 2018|newspaper=The Georgia Straight|date=11 April 2018|ref=Grace Ndiritu|archive-date=13 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180413043801/https://www.straight.com/arts/1056341/time-travels-contemporary-art-gallerys-blue-hour|url-status=live}}

Ndiritu describes her method of painting as Post-Hippie Pop-Abstraction. It was used as the basis for her SWEATSHOP series of painting installations,{{cite web|last1=Reid Gallery|title=Workers: Post-Hippie Pop-Abstraction (2015)|url=http://gracendiritu.com/Painting/Workers-Post-Hippie-Pop-Abstraction-2015|date=2015|access-date=15 May 2016|archive-date=22 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160622062052/http://www.gracendiritu.com/Painting/Workers-Post-Hippie-Pop-Abstraction-2015|url-status=live}} which look at the idea of the sweatshop from three juxtaposing yet overlapping angles: Indigenous Tribes who are producing culture and spirituality to feed the New Age movement in the West; The Art Studio - artists who are making objects to feed the art market; Third World countries - where poorly paid workers make products to feed the luxury fashion global consumer market.{{cite journal|last1=d'Ettorre|first1=Benedetta|title=A Return to Normalcy: Birth of a New Museum - Curating Contemporary Art|url= https://www.academia.edu/23688032|website=www.academia.edu |publisher=Academia|ref=Royal College of Art|date=2016|access-date=4 December 2017}}

COVERSLUT is a fashion and economic research project from Ndiritu founded in 2018. It focuses on dealing with issues of democracy, race, gender and class politics. It incorporates capitalist, pay what you can and ethical/environmental strategies into its economic framework. It is inspired by her own writings and thinkers such as Muhammad Yunus (micro loans), Charles Einstein (sacred economics), Vandava Shiva (economic feminism), and Stewart Brand (Whole Earth Catalog). Ndiritu's use of pay what you can in her own art practice has influenced several art institutions including Eastside Projects, Birmingham - Artists Led Multiverse Summit{{cite web|url=https://eastsideprojects.org/events/artist-led-multiverse-summit/|title=Artist Run Multiverse Summit|access-date=28 January 2019|archive-date=29 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190129181315/https://eastsideprojects.org/events/artist-led-multiverse-summit/|url-status=live}} and Kunsthal Ghent's{{cite web |url=https://kunsthal.gent/files/users_manual_en.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=28 January 2019 |archive-date=29 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190129010012/https://kunsthal.gent/files/users_manual_en.pdf |url-status=dead }} admission fee for their new building and Coventry Biennale, UK in 2019 - to adopt a pay what you can policy inspired by Ndiritu's ideas on institutional critique and structural change.

At age fourteen, Ndiritu was published by Oxford University Press.{{cite book|last1=Lockwood|first1=Lockwood|title=The Oxford English Programme 4A: National Curriculum Key Stage 4 Bk.4|date=1992|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0198311761|url= http://www.abebooks.de/products/isbn/9780198311768/19082578027|access-date=20 July 2016|archive-date=5 August 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170805064253/https://www.abebooks.de/products/isbn/9780198311768/19082578027|url-status=live}} More recently Ndiritu's experimental art writing has been published by Animal Shelter Journal Semiotext(e) MIT Press.{{cite book|last1=El Kholti.|first1=Hedi|title=Animal Shelter|date=2013|publisher=Semiotexte|location=US|isbn=9781584351320|edition=Issue 3|url=http://www.art-agenda.com/shows/animal-shelter-issue-3-by-semiotexte/|access-date=20 July 2016|archive-date=5 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305120919/http://www.art-agenda.com/shows/animal-shelter-issue-3-by-semiotexte/|url-status=live}}

Her political essays "A Call To White America: A Response to Donald J. Trump" (2016), "Notes To a White Left World: Activism in this Current Political Crisis" (2017), "Love in The Time of Trump: The Problematics of Kanye West" (2018) and "The Healing of America" (2020){{cite web|url= https://fillip.ca/content/the-healing-of-america|title=The Healing of America (Grace Ndiritu)|access-date=18 January 2021|archive-date=20 January 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210120024126/https://fillip.ca/content/the-healing-of-america|url-status=live}} are published online.

Her first book Dissent Without Modification{{cite web |date= |title=Dissent Without Modification |url=http://www.dissentwithoutmodification.com/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220207192557/https://www.dissentwithoutmodification.com/ |archive-date=7 February 2022 |accessdate=26 February 2022 |publisher=Dissent Without Modification}} published by Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2021) is a critical theory book, made up of research interviews with radical, progressive, forward-thinking women who started their careers in the 1990s. It is a post-hippie, skate, surf, street, neo-tribal book on youth culture.

In November 2021, Adrian Searle wrote a review for The Guardian praising Our Silver City 2094 and gave it four out of five stars.{{cite news |last1=Searle |first1=Adrian |title=Fire, flood and frozen goldfish: Our Silver City 2094 reveals Nottingham's future – review |url= https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/nov/23/our-silver-city-2094-review-nottingham-contemporary |work=The Guardian |date=23 November 2021 |language=en |access-date=16 December 2021 |archive-date=16 December 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211216145743/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/nov/23/our-silver-city-2094-review-nottingham-contemporary |url-status=live }}

In April 2017, Ndiritu was interviewed for The Most Amazing People about death, love, art, grief, and River Phoenix.{{cite web|url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjUADJ1HiMs|website=Most Amazing People Interview|title=#TMAP0015 - Grace N. [Full Episode]|date=August 2017|access-date=16 August 2017|archive-date=26 February 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220226163408/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjUADJ1HiMs|url-status=live}}

In 2014 she was named one of the "ten most important and influential artists under 40" by Apollo magazine in both their European and US issues.

In September 2014, Apollo magazine included Ndiritu in both their European and US "40 Under 40", an annual issue dedicated to the ten most important and influential artists under forty.{{cite journal|title=40 Under 40 Europe|journal=Apollo|date=2014|issue=July/August|url=http://www.apollo-magazine.com/40-40-europe/|language=English|quote=The most inspirational young people in the European art world|access-date=20 July 2016|archive-date=28 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160728001626/http://www.apollo-magazine.com/40-40-europe/|url-status=live}}{{cite journal|title=40 Under 40 USA|journal=Apollo |date=2015|issue=September|url=http://www.apollo-magazine.com/40-40-usa/|quote=The most inspirational young people in the US art world|access-date=20 July 2016|archive-date=28 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160728213045/http://www.apollo-magazine.com/40-40-usa/|url-status=live}}

In 2011 Ndiritu's video Desert Storm (2004) was also compared to Titian's The Rape of Europa (1562), Delacroix's painting Death of Sardanapalus (1827), Goya's Disasters of War series of drawings and Gentileschi's painting Susanna and the Elders (1610), by Caroline Bagenal for Afterimage magazine.{{cite journal|last1=Bagenal|first1=Caroline|title=Ravishing Beauty: The Aesthetics of Rape in Grace Ndiritu's video Desert Storm|journal=Afterimage|date=2011|volume=The Aesthetics of Rape|issue=39|pages=gracendiritu.com/Press-Reviews/Afterimage-Magazine-The-Aesthetics-of-Rape-2011|url=http://vsw.org/afterimage/issues/afterimage-vol-39-no-1-2/|publisher=Visual Studies Workshop|location=Rochester, New York|language=English|access-date=20 July 2016|archive-date=13 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170513075433/http://vsw.org/afterimage/issues/afterimage-vol-39-no-1-2/|url-status=dead}}

Ndiritu's work is also housed in museum collections such as the Migros Museum of Contemporary Art Zurich, Foto Museum Antwerp, Arts Council England, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, British Council, London, Metropolitan Museum of Art,{{cite web |author1=Alisa La Gamma |date=2009 |title=The Nightingale |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection#!?q=grace%20ndiritu&sortBy=Relevance&sortOrder=asc&page=1 |access-date=20 July 2016 |website=metmuseum.org |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |quote=Met Collection Accession Number: 2009.375 |location=New York}} New York and Modern Art Museum, Warsaw. Her work is also in the private collection of King Mohammed VI, Morocco, as well as The Walther Collection.{{cite web|url=https://www.artsy.net/show/klowden-mann-grace-ndiritu-a-quest-for-meaning-vol-7-bright-young-things|title=Grace Ndiritu: A Quest For Meaning Vol. 7: Bright Young Things {{!}} Klowden Mann {{!}} Artsy|website=www.artsy.net|language=en|access-date=26 March 2018|archive-date=27 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180327023711/https://www.artsy.net/show/klowden-mann-grace-ndiritu-a-quest-for-meaning-vol-7-bright-young-things|url-status=live}}

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Category:Living people

Category:1982 births

Category:21st-century English women artists

Category:British artists

Category:Kenyan artists