Carol Muthiga-Oyekunle

Carol Muthiga-Oyekunle is an American-Kenyan artist and designer. In 2001, she founded her own accessories brand in New York. She graduated from the Royal College of Art in London (MA Fashion).

In her work, the artist depicts women as symbolic warriors: in positions of strength, triumph, and joy. Her mixed, digital, and colorful collages combine fashion photography and expressive patterns. They feed the illusion of a feminine and mythical creation, of a wise and protective heroine. Her series is an ode to love as much as to hope. It is a journey through time, across the past, present, and future; a narrative other than that of patriarchy. Through her art, Carol Muthiga-Oyekunle holds up a mirror to society.

The artist draws her artistic ideas from everyday life. From faces she sees on the street, people she knows personally, women who inspire her. Her experimental approach leads her to assemble elements that, at first glance, do not go together. This is where the surprise and magic of her work lie, largely influenced by a host of modernist and contemporary artists such as Gustav Klimt, Henri Matisse, Alfons Mucha, and Roy Lichtenstein. Among her more recent post-contemporary influences are Kehinde Wiley, Yinka Shonibare, and Wangechi Mutu.

But the creative process of this American-Kenyan artist living in Paris is primarily determined by heritage, culture, tradition, and Afrofuturism. Afrofuturism tells the story of the African diaspora from a technological future. It imagines a society in which Afro-Caribbeans would live on an equal footing. It is therefore no coincidence that Carol Muthiga-Oyekunle describes her heroines as “intergalactic.”