Exhibition : Wangechi Mutu’s “Black Soil Poems” on view in Rome

Until September 14, the historic Galleria Borghese in Rome hosts “Black Soil Poems,” a striking solo exhibition by Wangechi Mutu. The Kenyan-American artist, renowned for her multidisciplinary approach, brings a bold and poetic interrogation of colonial legacy, Black identity, and African cosmology into the heart of classical European art.

In this exhibition, Mutu suspends hybrid figures—part-human, part-nature—in the ornate baroque halls of the museum, creating a visual and emotional dialogue with the works of Bernini, Caravaggio, and their contemporaries. Her art disrupts the canon, weaving stories that have long been silenced.

“Black Soil Poems” is part of the Galleria’s effort to reframe its heritage through contemporary lenses. But Mutu goes further—her work does not simply engage with the space; it questions it. Through sculptural assemblages, collages, and immersive installations, she evokes histories of displacement, ecological destruction, and cultural resilience.

Drawing on African aesthetic traditions—masks, symbols, mythologies—Mutu confronts how the Black body has been excluded or exoticized in Western art. Her work reclaims space, speaks of rootedness in African soil, and explores femininity and spirit through natural forms. The exhibition’s title evokes both mourning and rebirth, conjuring poems born from the earth.

By bringing her vision to the Galleria Borghese, Mutu makes a political and artistic statement. She transforms a bastion of European culture into a space of cross-cultural reckoning, urging viewers to reexamine inherited narratives and to center African perspectives.

Through September 14, visitors can experience this haunting and poetic body of work—an urgent invitation to listen, reflect, and rethink.