Senga Nengudi is one of the seminal conceptual and performance artists of our time. Educated in Los Angeles in the 1960s, Nengudi left L.A. to study art in New York and Tokyo decades ago. She is now returning to Los Angeles, to major acclaim, with Senga Nengudi: Improvisational Gestures, a comprehensive exhibition at USC Fisher Museum of Art on view from January 20 through April 14, 2018.

Nengudi emerged as part of a group of avant-garde African-American artists active in Los Angeles and New York in the 1970s and 1980s. Her peers, members of the Studio Z collective and what came to be known as the LA Rebellion, included the artists David Hammons, Maren Hassinger, Barbara McCullough, John Outterbridge, Noah Purifoy and others.

Informed by a shifted sociopolitical consciousness, Nengudi’s earliest work synthesized feminism, African and Japanese dance, music, and religious rituals in experimental sculptures and performances.

These themes continue to inform Nengudi’s interdisciplinary practice to this day. Nengudi’s work often draws from collaboration with other artists and disciplines, including dancers and musicians. Blending natural and synthetic materials, including pantyhose, rubber and sand, her sculptures often await the activation of a human body, marking and mystifying the dynamic intimacy between us and the matter that we move through.