Contact

nmutitistudioatgmaildotcom

Biography

Nontsikelelo Mutiti is a Zimbabwean-born visual artist and educator. She is invested in elevating the work and practices of Black peoples past, present, and future through a conceptual approach to design, publishing, archiving practices, and institution building. Mutiti holds a diploma in Multimedia from the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ZIVA) and an MFA from the Yale School of Art, with a concentration in Graphic Design. Mutiti is the Director of Graduate Studies for Graphic Design at Yale School of Art. She has held academic positions at Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ZIVA), SUNY Purchase College and VCUart at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Artist statement

My practice traverses the boundaries of fine art, design and public engagement. Works on paper and those rendered as time based audiovisual explorations incorporate the digital through hand rendered techniques, as well as computer aided and photographic processes. I am also interested in the form of the book as a time based medium that implies sequence and engages the viewer on a physical level. Much of my printed work exists in multiples. Booklets, print runs of posters, zines, pin-back buttons and booklets make it possible to distribute images and texts to a targeted audience. I am committed to public engagement and work to create situations for the exchange of experiences and skills both in the research and gathering phase of my work as well as at the end through workshops and public conversations.

Awards, Fellowships, and Residencies

2020
DAAD Artists In Berlin Program
Soros Arts Fellowship, Art, Migration, and Public Space
San Francisco Art Book Fair Publishing Grant, San Francisco
2018
Soros Arts Fellowship, Open Society, New York
2019
History of Art: Women in Publishing, Center for Book Arts, New York
2017
Kate Spade & Company Foundation Fellowship, New York
NEW INC art and technology membership, New Museum, New York
Reading Zimbabwe Library, Wendy’s Subway, New York
Smithsonian Arts Research Fellowship, Smithsonian, Washington D.C.
2015
Emerging Artist Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York
Keyholder Residency, Centre for Book Arts, New York, January 2014 – January 2016
Analog Residency, Recess, New York, July 2015 – August 2016
2014
Recess Session, residency, New York, June – August
2013
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts Challenge, for Zimbabwe Cultural
Centre Detroit
2012
Alice Kimball English Travelling Fellowship, Yale School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut
Fellow, Create Change Program, Laundromat Project, New York
2011
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Scholarship, Yale School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut
2007
Highest Achievement, Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts, Harare, Zimbabwe