About Tschabalala Self

Born in Harlem, New York, as the daughter of a seamstress, Tschabalala Self, made a meteoric career with her collages that were included in major exhibitions in Europe and Asia. The figures on her canvases, consisting of a mix of male and female elements, radiate a sexual vitality of unprecedented joy and strength. Everything is laid bare, embraced, celebrated and enjoyed. From this visual basis, with which she explores and depicts the black body in a new way, Self moves on to sculpture. There she creates a worldly kind of black women with their wide-expanding forms, which reveal more than they cover. They look nothing like the image of the woman they reflect. Here, ideas and patterns are settled, and a step is taken in the total peeling away of them. ARTZUID 2025 shows the sculpture Pioneer that evokes a world of associations. Circus acrobatics compete with the depictions of youngsters tumbling on bulls in ancient Crete. The vagina is the most celebrated gateway to ecstasy in literature and poetry. Self rejects any form of moralism about the body.