Alex Mawimbi (formally known as Ato Malinda) holds an MFA from Transart Institute, New York. Through a combination of performance, drawing, painting, installation, video and ceramic object-making, she investigates the hybrid nature of African identity, contesting notions of authenticity. Mawimbi has worked with western museums to dispel notions of a ‘Unitarian Africa’, so often seen in ethnographic exhibitions. With a further focus on gender and sexuality, she is inspired by LGBTQ communities whose stories are rarely, if not reductively, told.

She is the recipient of several awards including the inaugural Smithsonian African Art Award (2016), the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2015) and The One Minutes award (2012). Mawimbi’s solo shows include Games (2013), Savvy Contemporary, Berlin and Incommensurable Identities (2011), Aarhus Art Building, Aarhus. Group exhibitions include the Brooklyn Museum, New York (2016); National Museum of African Art – Smithsonian Institution (2015) and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (2015).