[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":839},["Reactive",2],{"_apollo:default":3,"_apollo:preview":837,"_apollo:shopify":838},{"SanityImageAsset:image-69e377ba31017862ecc6cf76195ce27ae247265c-960x960-jpg":4,"SanityImageAsset:image-2e65e32129efa4aa30d63ff20bcdcac8906d190f-3000x2000-jpg":8,"SanityImageAsset:image-d6223b7562da5db7e804b6dc45db30824293bde0-3828x2153-jpg":11,"SanityImageAsset:image-f04f95aa2fa35a80be5a44bc8dafed6c336cefed-1538x1022-png":14,"SanityImageAsset:image-74f0f7998cf3daa1e2bea3c643ce5d353dc847f4-2024x1826-png":17,"ROOT_QUERY":20},["null","__typename",5,"_id",6,"url",7,"id",6],"SanityImageAsset","image-69e377ba31017862ecc6cf76195ce27ae247265c-960x960-jpg","https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cpu8yypf/production-v4/69e377ba31017862ecc6cf76195ce27ae247265c-960x960.jpg",["null","__typename",5,"_id",9,"url",10,"id",9],"image-2e65e32129efa4aa30d63ff20bcdcac8906d190f-3000x2000-jpg","https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cpu8yypf/production-v4/2e65e32129efa4aa30d63ff20bcdcac8906d190f-3000x2000.jpg",["null","__typename",5,"_id",12,"url",13,"id",12],"image-d6223b7562da5db7e804b6dc45db30824293bde0-3828x2153-jpg","https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cpu8yypf/production-v4/d6223b7562da5db7e804b6dc45db30824293bde0-3828x2153.jpg",["null","__typename",5,"_id",15,"url",16,"id",15],"image-f04f95aa2fa35a80be5a44bc8dafed6c336cefed-1538x1022-png","https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cpu8yypf/production-v4/f04f95aa2fa35a80be5a44bc8dafed6c336cefed-1538x1022.png",["null","__typename",5,"_id",18,"url",19,"id",18],"image-74f0f7998cf3daa1e2bea3c643ce5d353dc847f4-2024x1826-png","https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cpu8yypf/production-v4/74f0f7998cf3daa1e2bea3c643ce5d353dc847f4-2024x1826.png",["null","__typename",21,"allArtist({\"sort\":[{\"_updatedAt\":\"ASC\"}],\"where\":{\"slug\":{\"current\":{\"eq\":\"leilah-babirye\"}}}})",22],"Query",[23],["null","__typename",24,"accentColor",25,"detailsTextColor",29,"heroTextColor",31,"artworks",32,"artworksLabel",34,"bioRaw",35,"bioImage",443,"blurbRaw",32,"category",448,"cv",449,"exhibitions",454,"series",32,"firstName",459,"heroHeadline",32,"heroImage",496,"heroSubline",499,"heroVideo",32,"lastName",460,"seo",500,"press",506,"shortDescription",836],"Artist",["null","__typename",26,"label",27,"value",28],"SimplerColor","Custom","rgb(33, 24, 74)",["null","__typename",26,"value",30],"rgb(248, 247, 250)",["null","__typename",26,"label",32,"value",33],null,"#ffffff","Artwork",[36,47,104,390],{"_key":37,"_type":38,"children":39,"markDefs":45,"style":46},"7cf23e2cff50","block",[40],{"_key":41,"_type":42,"marks":43,"text":44},"4ef010794d0f0","span",[],"Leilah Babirye (b. 1985; Kampala, Uganda) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is represented by Gordon Robichaux, New York; Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin; and Salon 94, New York. She studied art at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda (2007–10) and participated in the Fire Island Artist Residency in 2015. In 2018, she received asylum in the US with support from the African Services Committee and the NYC Anti-Violence Project.",[],"normal",{"_key":48,"_type":38,"children":49,"markDefs":103,"style":46},"0232cbf38cc0",[50,54,59,63,67,71,75,79,83,87,91,95,99],{"_key":51,"_type":42,"marks":52,"text":53},"b6f4e3b0e47f0",[],"Babirye has presented solo exhibitions at Salon 94, New York (forthcoming in 2027); Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles (2025); Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (2025); Gordon Robichaux, New York (2024, 2020, and 2018) and Los Angeles (2022); Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (2021); and Rebecca Camacho Presents, San Francisco (2020). Solo institutional exhibitions include ",{"_key":55,"_type":42,"marks":56,"text":58},"4f050166665f",[57],"em","Embaga ya Naki ne Naki (Wedding of Naki and Naki)",{"_key":60,"_type":42,"marks":61,"text":62},"5ecc15da7efc",[],", ICA Boston, MA (2026); ",{"_key":64,"_type":42,"marks":65,"text":66},"b6f4e3b0e47f1",[57],"We Have a History",{"_key":68,"_type":42,"marks":69,"text":70},"b6f4e3b0e47f2",[],", de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA (2024-2025); and ",{"_key":72,"_type":42,"marks":73,"text":74},"b6f4e3b0e47f3",[57],"Obumu (Unity)",{"_key":76,"_type":42,"marks":77,"text":78},"b6f4e3b0e47f4",[],", Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield,UK (2024). In August 2026, Babirye will present ",{"_key":80,"_type":42,"marks":81,"text":82},"b6f4e3b0e47f5",[57],"Embaga ya Naki ne Naki (Wedding of Naki and Naki)",{"_key":84,"_type":42,"marks":85,"text":86},"b6f4e3b0e47f6",[]," at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. In 2024, the artist presented a group of monumental sculptures in ",{"_key":88,"_type":42,"marks":89,"text":90},"b6f4e3b0e47f7",[57],"Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere",{"_key":92,"_type":42,"marks":93,"text":94},"b6f4e3b0e47f8",[],": 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy; and in 2026, Babirye will present work at the 18th Lyon Biennial of Contemporary Art: ",{"_key":96,"_type":42,"marks":97,"text":98},"b6f4e3b0e47f9",[57],"To pass from one dream to another in Lyon",{"_key":100,"_type":42,"marks":101,"text":102},"b6f4e3b0e47f10",[],", France.",[],{"_key":105,"_type":38,"children":106,"markDefs":389,"style":46},"45ba26889c83",[107,111,115,119,123,127,131,135,139,143,147,151,155,159,163,167,171,175,179,183,187,191,195,199,203,207,211,215,219,223,227,231,235,239,243,247,250,254,258,262,266,270,274,278,282,286,290,294,298,302,306,310,314,318,322,326,330,334,338,342,346,350,353,357,361,365,369,373,377,381,385],{"_key":108,"_type":42,"marks":109,"text":110},"dcb377f2991f0",[],"Group exhibitions include ",{"_key":112,"_type":42,"marks":113,"text":114},"dcb377f2991f1",[57],"Clay Has Memory: Generational Knowledge from Africa",{"_key":116,"_type":42,"marks":117,"text":118},"dcb377f2991f2",[],", Princeton University Museum, New Jersey; ",{"_key":120,"_type":42,"marks":121,"text":122},"dcb377f2991f3",[57],"Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art",{"_key":124,"_type":42,"marks":125,"text":126},"dcb377f2991f4",[],", National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C; ",{"_key":128,"_type":42,"marks":129,"text":130},"dcb377f2991f5",[57],"Shifting the Silence",{"_key":132,"_type":42,"marks":133,"text":134},"dcb377f2991f6",[],", Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany; ",{"_key":136,"_type":42,"marks":137,"text":138},"dcb377f2991f7",[57],"With Love from Paris",{"_key":140,"_type":42,"marks":141,"text":142},"dcb377f2991f8",[],", Pierre Yovanovitch, Paris, France; ",{"_key":144,"_type":42,"marks":145,"text":146},"dcb377f2991f9",[57],"New Encounters: Reframing the Contemporary Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art",{"_key":148,"_type":42,"marks":149,"text":150},"dcb377f2991f10",[],", Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; ARTZUID, ",{"_key":152,"_type":42,"marks":153,"text":154},"dcb377f2991f11",[57],"the Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale",{"_key":156,"_type":42,"marks":157,"text":158},"dcb377f2991f12",[],", Amsterdam, The Netherlands; ",{"_key":160,"_type":42,"marks":161,"text":162},"dcb377f2991f13",[57],"From Joséphine Bowes: Trendsetters and Trailblazers",{"_key":164,"_type":42,"marks":165,"text":166},"dcb377f2991f14",[],", The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, UK; ",{"_key":168,"_type":42,"marks":169,"text":170},"dcb377f2991f15",[57],"Liquid Gender",{"_key":172,"_type":42,"marks":173,"text":174},"dcb377f2991f16",[],", Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, UK;",{"_key":176,"_type":42,"marks":177,"text":178},"c0466f4627c6",[57],"Dreaming of Home",{"_key":180,"_type":42,"marks":181,"text":182},"26ac87ff344c",[],", Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York; ",{"_key":184,"_type":42,"marks":185,"text":186},"44bcec6e8080",[57],"Ecstatic",{"_key":188,"_type":42,"marks":189,"text":190},"8bcbfb3cf7cc",[],", Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; ",{"_key":192,"_type":42,"marks":193,"text":194},"93594b41b844",[57],"This Too Shall Pass",{"_key":196,"_type":42,"marks":197,"text":198},"28d0b3d78908",[],", Venus Over Manhattan, New York; ",{"_key":200,"_type":42,"marks":201,"text":202},"e30cf595dc75",[57],"Traces of Displacement",{"_key":204,"_type":42,"marks":205,"text":206},"3d212c436e7c",[],", The Whitworth, Manchester, UK; ",{"_key":208,"_type":42,"marks":209,"text":210},"60232e32a0dc",[57],"Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art",{"_key":212,"_type":42,"marks":213,"text":214},"d2d4b089f294",[],", Hayward Gallery, London, UK; ",{"_key":216,"_type":42,"marks":217,"text":218},"b17ebb8ac7c4",[57],"Contemporary African Art Collection",{"_key":220,"_type":42,"marks":221,"text":222},"f80cf4e2c2d1",[],", The Africa Centre, London, UK; ",{"_key":224,"_type":42,"marks":225,"text":226},"6ede9ec00f43",[57],"The odds are good, the goods are odd",{"_key":228,"_type":42,"marks":229,"text":230},"c2a77f39c715",[],", Lisson Gallery, New York; ",{"_key":232,"_type":42,"marks":233,"text":234},"e55dce18c500",[57],"On The Nature of Things",{"_key":236,"_type":42,"marks":237,"text":238},"a3840292439b",[],", Andrew Kreps, New York; ",{"_key":240,"_type":42,"marks":241,"text":242},"4de1b190d83b",[57],"mixed up with others before we even begin",{"_key":244,"_type":42,"marks":245,"text":246},"68df8c4f5d00",[]," at mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, Austria; ",{"_key":248,"_type":42,"marks":249,"text":210},"e88881d237ec",[57],{"_key":251,"_type":42,"marks":252,"text":253},"2cf8812cc5a5",[],", Hayward Gallery, London; ",{"_key":255,"_type":42,"marks":256,"text":257},"9ad7b7e0e556",[57],"Black Atlantic",{"_key":259,"_type":42,"marks":260,"text":261},"1b2acdb2e605",[]," (co-curated by Hugh Hayden and Daniel S. Palmer), presented by the Public Art Fund, Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York; ",{"_key":263,"_type":42,"marks":264,"text":265},"39b412297328",[57],"52 Artists: A Feminist Milestone",{"_key":267,"_type":42,"marks":268,"text":269},"43503577f6de",[],", The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut; ",{"_key":271,"_type":42,"marks":272,"text":273},"8349f337d4c2",[57],"Set It Off",{"_key":275,"_type":42,"marks":276,"text":277},"97033bb17eec",[]," (curated by Racquel Chevremont and Mickalene Thomas, collectively known as Deux Femmes Noires), Parrish Museum of Art, Watermill, New York; ",{"_key":279,"_type":42,"marks":280,"text":281},"b2940091fdfa",[57],"Coventry Biennial",{"_key":283,"_type":42,"marks":284,"text":285},"4cf21fea9ff7",[],", Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, UK; ",{"_key":287,"_type":42,"marks":288,"text":289},"6d6ead66009e",[57],"Art on the Grid",{"_key":291,"_type":42,"marks":292,"text":293},"0d95c6fe1255",[],", Public Art Fund, New York; ",{"_key":295,"_type":42,"marks":296,"text":297},"753788c1aacc",[57],"Did I Ever Have a Chance?",{"_key":299,"_type":42,"marks":300,"text":301},"4e008e20afc3",[],", Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles; ",{"_key":303,"_type":42,"marks":304,"text":305},"8e25d8892253",[57],"A Page From My Intimate Journal (Part II) —",{"_key":307,"_type":42,"marks":308,"text":309},"0a89c5ae2d06",[],", Parker Gallery, Los Angeles; ",{"_key":311,"_type":42,"marks":312,"text":313},"3b676433d4bb",[57],"Flight: A Collective History",{"_key":315,"_type":42,"marks":316,"text":317},"2be7ba4dc432",[]," (curated by Serubiri Moses), Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; ",{"_key":319,"_type":42,"marks":320,"text":321},"7344de573195",[57],"Stonewall 50",{"_key":323,"_type":42,"marks":324,"text":325},"fe7dddf04a77",[]," (curated by Dean Daderko), Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; ",{"_key":327,"_type":42,"marks":328,"text":329},"bf43c793ee63",[57],"Fur Cup",{"_key":331,"_type":42,"marks":332,"text":333},"7de9089e83f0",[]," (curated by Elisa Soliven), Underdonk, Brooklyn, New York; ",{"_key":335,"_type":42,"marks":336,"text":337},"0961d0f05277",[57],"Strange Attractors",{"_key":339,"_type":42,"marks":340,"text":341},"ec61a634e099",[]," (curated by Bob Nickas), Kerry Schuss, New York; ",{"_key":343,"_type":42,"marks":344,"text":345},"9b757b9fc1c0",[57],"Plays on Camp",{"_key":347,"_type":42,"marks":348,"text":349},"ded94693e211",[]," (curated by Dr. Ksenia M. Soboleva), Assembly Room, New York; and the 2018 Socrates Annual, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, New York. \n\nPublic commissions include Frieze Sculpture, London, UK (2023); ",{"_key":351,"_type":42,"marks":352,"text":257},"f965d8fc612c1",[57],{"_key":354,"_type":42,"marks":355,"text":356},"f965d8fc612c2",[]," (co-curated by Hugh Hayden and Daniel S. Palmer) presented by the Public Art Fund, Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York (2022); and ",{"_key":358,"_type":42,"marks":359,"text":360},"f965d8fc612c3",[57],"Najunga from the Kuchu Ngaali",{"_key":362,"_type":42,"marks":363,"text":364},"f965d8fc612c4",[]," ",{"_key":366,"_type":42,"marks":367,"text":368},"f965d8fc612c5",[57],"(Crested Crane) Clan",{"_key":370,"_type":42,"marks":371,"text":372},"f965d8fc612c6",[],", Celine, London, UK (2021).\n\nBabirye’s work is held in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; mumok–Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany; de Young Museum, San Francisco, California; Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio; Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin; RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island; Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, UK; The Africa Centre, London, UK; and Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany.\n\nProfiles on Babirye and her work were recently published in ",{"_key":374,"_type":42,"marks":375,"text":376},"0f1b95fc05f21",[57],"The New York Times, The New Yorker, the Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, British Vogue, Wallpaper* Magazine, Cultured Magazine, New York Magazine, Modern Painters, OUT Magazine, SFMOMA’s Raw Material podcast (Season 4: Luvvers), BET.com, ",{"_key":378,"_type":42,"marks":379,"text":380},"0f1b95fc05f22",[],"and",{"_key":382,"_type":42,"marks":383,"text":384},"0f1b95fc05f23",[57]," the Financial Times",{"_key":386,"_type":42,"marks":387,"text":388},"0f1b95fc05f24",[],".",[],{"_key":391,"_type":38,"children":392,"markDefs":442,"style":46},"e856605da4c8",[393,397,401,405,409,413,416,419,423,426,430,434,438],{"_key":394,"_type":42,"marks":395,"text":396},"ba443697e4020",[],"Publications include ",{"_key":398,"_type":42,"marks":399,"text":400},"ba443697e4021",[57],"Leilah Babirye",{"_key":402,"_type":42,"marks":403,"text":404},"ba443697e4022",[],", Gordon Robichaux, New York and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK; ",{"_key":406,"_type":42,"marks":407,"text":408},"ba443697e4023",[57],"Great Women Sculptors",{"_key":410,"_type":42,"marks":411,"text":412},"ba443697e4024",[],", Phaidon Press, New York; ",{"_key":414,"_type":42,"marks":415,"text":210},"ba443697e4025",[57],{"_key":417,"_type":42,"marks":418,"text":214},"ba443697e4026",[],{"_key":420,"_type":42,"marks":421,"text":422},"ba443697e4027",[57],"Coventry Biennial: Hyper-Possible",{"_key":424,"_type":42,"marks":425,"text":285},"ba443697e4028",[],{"_key":427,"_type":42,"marks":428,"text":429},"ba443697e4029",[57],"25 Years",{"_key":431,"_type":42,"marks":432,"text":433},"ba443697e40210",[],", Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK; and ",{"_key":435,"_type":42,"marks":436,"text":437},"ba443697e40211",[57],"When Things Fall Apart: Critical Voices on the Radars",{"_key":439,"_type":42,"marks":440,"text":441},"ba443697e40212",[],", Trapholt Museum, Kolding, Denmark.",[],["null","__typename",444,"alt",445,"asset",446,"captionRaw",32,"captionColor",32],"Img","Leilah Babirye, Salon 94, Salon 94 Design",{"__ref":447},"SanityImageAsset:image-69e377ba31017862ecc6cf76195ce27ae247265c-960x960-jpg","artist",["null","__typename",450,"asset",451],"File",["null","__typename",452,"url",453],"SanityFileAsset","https://cdn.sanity.io/files/cpu8yypf/production-v4/58d4d21fd2b047ff9f8bda1839806058726c4d95.pdf",[455,471,483],["null","__typename",456,"artists",457,"closingDate",32,"featuredImage",461,"featuredVideo",32,"location",464,"name",82,"openingDate",467,"slug",468],"Exhibition",[458],["null","__typename",24,"firstName",459,"lastName",460],"Leilah","Babirye",["null","__typename",444,"alt",32,"asset",462],{"__ref":463},"SanityImageAsset:image-2e65e32129efa4aa30d63ff20bcdcac8906d190f-3000x2000-jpg",["null","__typename",465,"name",466],"Location","The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston","2026-08-27",["null","__typename",469,"current",470],"Slug","embaga-ya-naki-ne-naki-wedding-of-naki-and-naki",["null","__typename",456,"artists",472,"closingDate",32,"featuredImage",474,"featuredVideo",32,"location",477,"name",479,"openingDate",480,"slug",481],[473],["null","__typename",24,"firstName",459,"lastName",460],["null","__typename",444,"alt",32,"asset",475],{"__ref":476},"SanityImageAsset:image-d6223b7562da5db7e804b6dc45db30824293bde0-3828x2153-jpg",["null","__typename",465,"name",478],"Cour des Loges Lyon","18th Biennale de Lyon: To pass from one dream to another ","2026-09-19",["null","__typename",469,"current",482],"18th-biennale-de-lyon",["null","__typename",456,"artists",484,"closingDate",486,"featuredImage",487,"featuredVideo",32,"location",490,"name",492,"openingDate",493,"slug",494],[485],["null","__typename",24,"firstName",459,"lastName",460],"2022-11-27",["null","__typename",444,"alt",32,"asset",488],{"__ref":489},"SanityImageAsset:image-f04f95aa2fa35a80be5a44bc8dafed6c336cefed-1538x1022-png",["null","__typename",465,"name",491],"Brooklyn Bridge Park","Black Atlantic ","2022-05-17",["null","__typename",469,"current",495],"black-atlantic",["null","__typename",444,"alt",32,"asset",497,"captionRaw",32,"captionColor",32],{"__ref":498},"SanityImageAsset:image-74f0f7998cf3daa1e2bea3c643ce5d353dc847f4-2024x1826-png","b. 1985",["null","__typename",501,"description",32,"image",502,"title",400],"Seo",["null","__typename",503,"asset",504],"Image",["null","__typename",5,"url",505],"https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cpu8yypf/production-v4/304ff9a9177c9b6bb7df83bccd9ca6542611829a-2000x3000.jpg",[507,695],["null","__typename",508,"articleRaw",509,"author",690,"link",691,"pdf",32,"publicationDate",692,"publisher",693,"title",694],"Press",[510,518,526,534,542,550,558,566,574,582,590,598,606,614,622,630,638,646,654,662,674,682],{"_key":511,"_type":38,"children":512,"markDefs":517,"style":46},"5be068cd8443",[513],{"_key":514,"_type":42,"marks":515,"text":516},"a341ce718a1f0",[],"The sculptor Leilah Babirye keeps a precious certificate framed on the worktable in her studio in Brooklyn, above a shelf holding chain saws.",[],{"_key":519,"_type":38,"children":520,"markDefs":525,"style":46},"1add7a7745e7",[521],{"_key":522,"_type":42,"marks":523,"text":524},"4169632491b00",[],"It was issued by the Buganda kingdom — the largest of several traditional jurisdictions that predate the modern-day state of Uganda and continue to exercise social and cultural sway — identifying Babirye as a loyal subject. A band around its edge shows the animal or plant symbols for the roughly 50 lineage clans that comprise Buganda society. Babirye’s is the ngabi, a kind of antelope.",[],{"_key":527,"_type":38,"children":528,"markDefs":533,"style":46},"a662d39a982f",[529],{"_key":530,"_type":42,"marks":531,"text":532},"004c442404150",[],"“It’s a very important thing to have in the house,” Babirye, 41, said of the certificate, which she obtained through royal representatives in the United States.",[],{"_key":535,"_type":38,"children":536,"markDefs":541,"style":46},"e688039f2495",[537],{"_key":538,"_type":42,"marks":539,"text":540},"c17c6f2b751e0",[],"Babirye arrived in New York in 2015, and received asylum, in light of anti-homosexuality legislation in Uganda and outing campaigns in the news media in which she, as a young artist, was a target. But whereas the Ugandan government criminalizes her identity, she has no issue with the traditional kingdom, which has a history of gender fluidity.",[],{"_key":543,"_type":38,"children":544,"markDefs":549,"style":46},"f7b0fcf0c470",[545],{"_key":546,"_type":42,"marks":547,"text":548},"bbb62c23ad630",[],"Her art presses at this paradox, and through it, broader stakes of queer existence and belonging. The pieces hover at the edge of figuration, in the form of tabletop busts or tall statue-like sculptures that evoke African masks but are distorted, doubled or deconstructed, sometimes to Cubist levels of abstraction. The wood or ceramic bodies are adorned or extended with found objects — nails, tire tubes, bottle caps, kitchenware — evoking a slur in Uganda that likens gay people to discards. She gives them names and clan designations.",[],{"_key":551,"_type":38,"children":552,"markDefs":557,"style":46},"ba562ccba7f8",[553],{"_key":554,"_type":42,"marks":555,"text":556},"fabad10ce9220",[],"\nIn New York, Babirye’s work has been shown at Socrates Sculpture Park and the Brooklyn Bridge Park, as well as with Gordon Robichaux gallery. She recently had a solo exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, in England, and another responding to the African collection at the de Young museum in San Francisco, pointedly titled “We Have a History.”",[],{"_key":559,"_type":38,"children":560,"markDefs":565,"style":46},"6336f2fd149f",[561],{"_key":562,"_type":42,"marks":563,"text":564},"90edae2355af0",[],"Now, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston is presenting “Embaga ya Naki ne Naki (Wedding of Naki and Naki),” featuring five tall works standing like ancestral guardians around 16 new pieces arrayed in a circle. The theme is a queer wedding, with two characters conjoined in the centerpiece sculpture and the others as their guests.",[],{"_key":567,"_type":38,"children":568,"markDefs":573,"style":46},"1130c5d47b76",[569],{"_key":570,"_type":42,"marks":571,"text":572},"47b453297b890",[],"The exhibition, Babirye said, is even more explicitly Ugandan than usual, with the diagram of Buganda clan symbols now framing the main wall text in the gallery.",[],{"_key":575,"_type":38,"children":576,"markDefs":581,"style":46},"462c7d4f7a0a",[577],{"_key":578,"_type":42,"marks":579,"text":580},"f352e412d3620",[],"It is also, she added, her most celebratory.",[],{"_key":583,"_type":38,"children":584,"markDefs":589,"style":46},"099acef3429e",[585],{"_key":586,"_type":42,"marks":587,"text":588},"7de814311bca0",[],"“I’ve addressed who we are,” she said. “This is us. You’ve got to accept us, whether you want us or not. But we also have a life as queer people. Homosexual people can imagine weddings. It’s beautiful, it’s happiness. As an artist on this level right now, I’ve always told my people: We’ve cried so much. It’s about our pain. How about us representing ourselves in a joyful way?”",[],{"_key":591,"_type":38,"children":592,"markDefs":597,"style":46},"985218b07d2d",[593],{"_key":594,"_type":42,"marks":595,"text":596},"9cda98e5dbdb0",[],"Upbeat suits Babirye, who is funny and direct, apt to call a pause midway through a long interview for a shot of tequila. On the day that her show opened last week, she convened lunch at an Ugandan restaurant in Waltham, Mass., where activists and supporters stopped by. (The Boston area has a substantial Ugandan community; Babirye goes there for events and groceries.)",[],{"_key":599,"_type":38,"children":600,"markDefs":605,"style":46},"6a9de51e2316",[601],{"_key":602,"_type":42,"marks":603,"text":604},"c690475fe0fb0",[],"Ruth Erickson, the ICA’s chief curator, observed that Babirye’s can-do verve manifests in her art. “She’s not somebody who gets brought down by the world,” Erickson said. “She finds a positive way through it.”",[],{"_key":607,"_type":38,"children":608,"markDefs":613,"style":46},"9814dd8f22e1",[609],{"_key":610,"_type":42,"marks":611,"text":612},"da96ce5f89fa0",[],"It begins with a chain saw and a blowtorch. Wood is Babirye’s original medium, which her growing success has enabled her to develop at increasing scale. She works with reclaimed lumber, for its dryness and durability.",[],{"_key":615,"_type":38,"children":616,"markDefs":621,"style":46},"39c35682b366",[617],{"_key":618,"_type":42,"marks":619,"text":620},"428e72d84961",[],"The process is intuitive. “I don’t work with any sketches, because whatever you want to do is out there,” she said. Blow-torching darkens the wood and reveals its veins. She spends quiet time with each piece considering which additions it requires. “They get cranky,” she said of the works, if the braided tire tubes or stacked bicycle chains or flattened tin surfaces aren’t right. “They start complaining.”",[],{"_key":623,"_type":38,"children":624,"markDefs":629,"style":46},"eb84b83933cd",[625],{"_key":626,"_type":42,"marks":627,"text":628},"23b465be50b90",[],"In Uganda, she said, friends called Babirye “Burns,” after her blowtorch proclivities. And her techniques also reflect the lineage of her alma mater, the prestigious art school of Makerere University in Kampala, said the Ugandan writer and curator Serubiri Moses, who has long followed her practice. With his fellow curator Kevin D. Dumouchelle, Moses included her this year in an exhibition of African L.G.B.T.Q. artists at the National Museum of African Art in Washington.",[],{"_key":631,"_type":38,"children":632,"markDefs":637,"style":46},"b1ddfec0ea8c",[633],{"_key":634,"_type":42,"marks":635,"text":636},"74f625ba58f20",[],"The Makerere sculptors have long worked with burned wood, Moses said. But, he added, whereas many East African artists have academic careers, “Leilah has created her own path.”",[],{"_key":639,"_type":38,"children":640,"markDefs":645,"style":46},"5a810de54ede",[641],{"_key":642,"_type":42,"marks":643,"text":644},"0fb8a944e837",[],"As an undergraduate, Babirye’s decision to study art, defying her businessman father, was prompted by a visit to the art campus, where she came across the sculptor Lilian Mary Nabulime at work with power tools. The school taught fundamentals — Henry Moore, Henri Matisse and Alberto Giacometti made strong impressions, Babirye said — but encouraged experimentation. Nabulime became her mentor.\n\nBut when Babirye returned for a master’s degree, faculty members disapproved of her project. “You had to come in with a thesis,” Babirye recalled, and hers was blunt: “I want to look at the problems that L.G.B.T.I. are facing in this country.” Babirye went on: “My professors were like, OK, we understand that you like women. How about if you just call it erotica, and you can look at women and private parts if you want to do that?”\n\nAt what she called an “interrogation” before the faculty, Babirye tried to explain the stakes with a primer on queer identities. “They all left the room,” she said. She left the program.\n\nShe continued making art nonetheless, working with found materials, and appearing in a few group shows in the region. Despite repression, queer life persisted, she said. One time, she recalled, people gathered in a bar for an illegal gay wedding. The police raided; she fled by a side exit.\n\nIn 2014, however, the situation became untenable when she was listed in a tabloid campaign, Babirye said. Death threats followed, including one slipped under the door to a cabin serving as her hide-out. “I realized I had to leave,” she said. (Although the 2014 act was struck down on a technicality, a new anti-homosexuality act has been in force since 2023.)\n\nNetworks of solidarity, along with her own resourcefulness, have buttressed Babirye’s New York experience. She arrived, initially, for a residency for L.G.B.T.Q. artists on Fire Island, setting up durable connections to other Black and queer artists. Veteran activists and lawyers helped to guided her asylum case. The African Services Committee, in Harlem, became a second home.\n\nAt the same time, she was collecting cans in the street to redeem for cash — to get by, but also with her eye for found materials. Soon she was making bike deliveries. At one point, she commuted from the Bronx — where she lived in an apartment shared by mostly cabdrivers — to a work space in Brooklyn. A work of woven plastic bags that she braided on the subway appeared in her first gallery show, in 2018.\n\nBabirye’s work is now in major institutions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2022, her striking pair of wood sculptures, “Agali Awamu (Togetherness),” on the Brooklyn waterfront, raised her visibility. The invitation from Adriano Pedrosa, curator of the 2024 Venice Biennale with its emphasis on queer identities, followed soon after. She still stays frugal, she said: “I don’t need money because I’ve learned how to live with nothing.”",[],{"_key":647,"_type":38,"children":648,"markDefs":653,"style":46},"84ed1d65a689",[649],{"_key":650,"_type":42,"marks":651,"text":652},"f4b38735fcb70",[],"For Natasha Becker, curator of African art at the de Young and author of an essay in the ICA exhibition catalog, Babirye fits into African art history while also “breaking all the rules,” not least because most historical African sculptures were made by men. “Her chain saw is a metaphorical way of cutting through prejudice, through hard materials and hard social norms,” Becker said.\n\nAt the same time, Babirye’s community role “puts her in a rich history of queer activism all over the world,” Becker said. Like Zanele Muholi, the South African photographer and self-described “visual activist,” Babirye has “a capacity for carrying multitudes,” Becker added.",[],{"_key":655,"_type":38,"children":656,"markDefs":661,"style":46},"df6e135ae1a8",[657],{"_key":658,"_type":42,"marks":659,"text":660},"64fa27dbd6870",[],"In Boston, Babirye was beaming, in the spirit of the party that her installation portrays. She explained the titles of the sculptures representing guests, some named for her mother or other relatives, others more ambiguously, to allow everyone to relate.",[],{"_key":663,"_type":38,"children":664,"markDefs":673,"style":46},"d4ecc18d7de7",[665,669],{"_key":666,"_type":42,"marks":667,"text":668},"f389a2d21bc90",[],"The smaller scale, she said, focused her attention on detail — a gown of woven beer-bottle tops, for instance, in homage to the Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui; a grand headdress of kitchen graters and whisks. “I’m thinking, what if we have some London people flying in, wanting to look like a queen?” she said.\n\n",{"_key":670,"_type":42,"marks":671,"text":672},"ee3037ced4ff",[],"Something has softened. Her old mentor recently visited her in the Brooklyn studio; Babirye gave her chisels and other tools to take back. Even her father has reached out, she said, though she is letting that one wait.",[],{"_key":675,"_type":38,"children":676,"markDefs":681,"style":46},"d27f917af334",[677],{"_key":678,"_type":42,"marks":679,"text":680},"7a08a04afe7b0",[],"It might not be reconciliation, exactly, but it’s something to celebrate.",[],{"_key":683,"_type":38,"children":684,"markDefs":689,"style":46},"5a7bd175c44b",[685],{"_key":686,"_type":42,"marks":687,"text":688},"b84d3dc202790",[],"She said this show feels “joyful,” compared with past ones animated by anger. “I feel like it’s coming from the growth of doing this over and over,” she said. “And also healing.”",[],"Siddhartha Mitter","https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/arts/design/leilah-babirye-exhibit-boston.html","2026-09-03","New York Times","Chain Saws and Joy: A Sculptor's Evolution",["null","__typename",508,"articleRaw",696,"author",831,"link",832,"pdf",32,"publicationDate",833,"publisher",834,"title",835],[697,705,713,737,745,785,800,816,824],{"_key":698,"_type":38,"children":699,"markDefs":704,"style":46},"16bcc508622f",[700],{"_key":701,"_type":42,"marks":702,"text":703},"1f94d04cbaa60",[],"The artist transforms salvaged materials into busts and bodies, exploring queer self-fashioning as resistance.",[],{"_key":706,"_type":38,"children":707,"markDefs":712,"style":46},"46f1c684282e",[708],{"_key":709,"_type":42,"marks":710,"text":711},"c15c6e3db2c10",[],"The history of a struggle for beauty – to live with and as beauty – is told and retold on the surfaces of Leilah Babirye’s sculptures. Her works embody a queer African lineage that has fought – with raw ardour and anguish – for that sacred gleam. They come into the world having inherited the battle scars bearing witness to this struggle. Indeed, the scars are themselves part of the beauty.",[],{"_key":714,"_type":38,"children":715,"markDefs":736,"style":46},"18dd96f0c851",[716,720,724,728,732],{"_key":717,"_type":42,"marks":718,"text":719},"e2e4a94db76c0",[],"For Babirye, who has lived in New York since escaping anti-queer persecution in her native Uganda, sculpture is a language with which to speak about queer self-fashioning – and about the frictions between its external and internal forms, between the unrepentant expression of queer identity and its shielding from a hostile world. Her sculptures, most of which are abstract-figurative bodies or busts representing and honouring people in her life, play a dissonant music of brusque angles and rough-hewn edges. She leaves her surfaces – and their sentiments – worked up, worn out, marked by anxious textures created by a harshness of carving, burnishing and burning. For some sculptures, Babirye takes a blowtorch to her materials, leaving them seemingly ​​scorched by the heat of both queer desire and queer rage. ‘I’m pulling the anger into beauty,’ Babirye tells me of her techniques of wounding and healing. ‘I’m looking for the grains, I’m looking for the skin, the nature of the wood, for the beauty of texture.’\n\nBabirye begins by configuring the body of a sculpture from wood or clay, then populates its surface with detritus and refuse found in junkyards. Abject matter is reborn as adornment: in ",{"_key":721,"_type":42,"marks":722,"text":723},"c2567d40728f1",[57],"Gunsinze aliwa Bitono",{"_key":725,"_type":42,"marks":726,"text":727},"c2567d40728f2",[]," (2023), coiled-up bicycle chains and tyres blossom from the figure’s head instead of hair; in ",{"_key":729,"_type":42,"marks":730,"text":731},"c2567d40728f3",[57],"Queen in Love",{"_key":733,"_type":42,"marks":734,"text":735},"c2567d40728f4",[]," (2016), a mouth is brutally and beautifully embellished with a padlock and nails. What was once massed under the label of ‘junk’ gives the sculptures the expressive contours of singularity, a unique language of style. For Babirye, the choice to use discarded matter is political: ‘It all begins with being called rubbish,’ she says, adding that the slang for queer in the Luganda language translates to ‘trash’. Her sculptures devour these significations and spit them back out in gorgeously distorted and baroque forms that speak to a queer refusal to be reduced to refuse. ‘When I bring rubbish to my studio, I make something that gives it a life or a meaning,’ Babirye says.\n\nBeneath the ornamentation are faces composed of a shared, simple grammar: the soft contour of a mouth, the extrusion of something like a nose, the easy slope of eyebrows. Babirye’s most striking gestures happen in her sculptures’ eyes: in almost all her works, the gaze is represented as a pair of deep slits cut into two raised mounds. Ambiguous in expression, these eyes appear neither entirely open nor fully closed; they are not looking outwards at us, but neither are they unseeing. As the sculptures recede into the brooding mysticism of inward sight, exteriority yields to an inaccessible inside. For all Babirye’s rigorous attention to surface, the sculptures seem to yearn for the magnitude of their own depths.\n",[],{"_key":738,"_type":38,"children":739,"markDefs":744,"style":46},"1235d837bde6",[740],{"_key":741,"_type":42,"marks":742,"text":743},"d573c65618030",[],"This affective immurement holds the sculptures in tension, as if stretched into the hard artifice of masks. Indeed, the history of West African masks has been decidedly influential on her work. The mask has become not only a springboard for aesthetic inspiration – opening onto the angular precision that runs throughout Babirye’s compositions – but also a metaphorical device signalling queer acts of encryption and dissimulation. Art and life blurred when she noticed friends in Uganda wearing masks in queer spaces in order to protect their identity.",[],{"_key":746,"_type":38,"children":747,"markDefs":784,"style":46},"a0d09f75a8f5",[748,752,756,760,764,768,772,776,780],{"_key":749,"_type":42,"marks":750,"text":751},"898cf83e94df0",[],"Babirye makes the histories of tribal mask-making legible by embedding the names of peoples and kingdoms – often ones that she invents – into her titles. One work, for example, is called ",{"_key":753,"_type":42,"marks":754,"text":755},"898cf83e94df1",[57],"Atwooki from the Kuchu Tooro Kingdom",{"_key":757,"_type":42,"marks":758,"text":759},"898cf83e94df2",[]," (2025); another ",{"_key":761,"_type":42,"marks":762,"text":763},"898cf83e94df3",[57],"Nansamba II from the Kuchu",{"_key":765,"_type":42,"marks":766,"text":767},"898cf83e94df4",[]," ",{"_key":769,"_type":42,"marks":770,"text":771},"898cf83e94df5",[57],"Ngabi (Antelope) Clan",{"_key":773,"_type":42,"marks":774,"text":775},"898cf83e94df6",[]," (2021) (",{"_key":777,"_type":42,"marks":778,"text":779},"898cf83e94df7",[57],"kuchu",{"_key":781,"_type":42,"marks":782,"text":783},"898cf83e94df8",[]," is a Swahili slang term for queer, while the artist herself is from the Ngabi clan). Babirye’s use of masking traditions raises questions that pierce the heart of her sculpture’s metaphysics – and of the metaphysics of representation more broadly: are we to read these objects as faces or disguises? Do they belong to portraiture, or are they closer to symbolism? We are caught in a dialectic between the concealment and revelation of identity; between a veiled representation of being and the being beneath the veil.",[],{"_key":786,"_type":38,"children":787,"markDefs":799,"style":46},"bc9a4309ac97",[788,792,795],{"_key":789,"_type":42,"marks":790,"text":791},"4178dad52be50",[57],"Leilah Babirye’s work will be on view at the",{"_key":793,"_type":42,"marks":794,"text":767},"4178dad52be51",[],{"_key":796,"_type":42,"marks":797,"text":798},"4178dad52be52",[57],"Institute of Contemporary Art (https://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/leilah-babirye/), Boston, from 27 August 2026 to 18 January 2027",[],{"_key":801,"_type":38,"children":802,"markDefs":815,"style":46},"80671a4a21c9",[803,807,811],{"_key":804,"_type":42,"marks":805,"text":806},"b8e6cd66c76b0",[57],"This article first appeared in",{"_key":808,"_type":42,"marks":809,"text":810},"b8e6cd66c76b1",[]," frieze ",{"_key":812,"_type":42,"marks":813,"text":814},"b8e6cd66c76b2",[57],"issue 260 with the headline ‘Dissonant Music’",[],{"_key":817,"_type":38,"children":818,"markDefs":823,"style":46},"1b5026a20506",[819],{"_key":820,"_type":42,"marks":821,"text":822},"2054af0fac0f0",[],"\n",[],{"_key":825,"_type":38,"children":826,"markDefs":830,"style":46},"38cf0a4eae7f",[827],{"_key":828,"_type":42,"marks":829,"text":822},"2a44bc2fe7cf0",[],[],"Zoe Hopkins","https://www.frieze.com/article/zoe-hopkins-leilah-babirye-260","2026-06-03","Frieze","Leilah Babirye’s Masks Begin in the Scrapyard","Born in Kampala, Uganda, 1985, and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.",{},{},1788472812913]