Emily Mulenga (b.1991, UK) is a multimedia artist whose practice spans video, digital and physical media and music. Using visuals and sound that draw upon video games, cartoons and the internet, her practice explores themes of capitalism, feminism, technology, love, millennial nostalgia and existential anxieties. Gloss and escapism meet humour and unease, spanning past, present and future.
ABOUT
AWARDS
2023
The Arts Foundation Futures Award: Digital Art
The Arts Foundation
2018
Frank Bowling Scholarship
Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London
2013
2014
ESP Graduate Bursary
Eastside Projects
Fierce FWD Bursary
Fierce Festival
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EDUCATION
MA Fine Art, Chelsea College of Arts, 2018 - 2020
BA Fine Art, Birmingham School of Art, 2010 - 2013
SOLO AND DUO SHOWS
2022
Fantasy Star Online [solo displays in conjunction with group exhibitions In the Black Fantastic and Winter Light], Southbank Centre, London, UK
2021
Data_Blood III, External Pages
2019
Now that we know the world is ending soon...what are you gonna wear?, Cheap Cheap Gallery, Birmingham, UK
Electric Lady Land, Enclave Lab, London, UK
2017
Taking Up Space, Firstsite, Colchester, UK
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2025
Voyager 2000: Worldbeing and Wonder?, Firstsite, Colchester
Manifesto for Sustainable Experimentation, Beaconsfield, London, UK
2024
Respawn, SEAGER, London, UK
2023
ACall Arts Festival, Staffordshire St Gallery, London, UK
Portal Park, MaMA, Rotterdam, Netherlands
NAE Open, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK
Player Piano, The Art Station, Saxmundham, UK
Eyes on the Horizon - Perspectival Shifts, BUoY Tokyo, Japan
The Advantages Of Being Boneless And Incomplete, Banner Repeater, London, UK
2022
Saturday Morning Animation Club, online with Off Site Project
Cut Copy Remix II, Vivid Projects and Birmingham Museums, Birmingham, UK
2021
Wells Kitchen, Wells Projects, London, UK
Companions, Forum Box, Helsinki, Finland
Careful Networks, Phoenix, online
Collective Intimacy: Reviving a Live Programme, The Showroom x theVOV
2020
Piper in the Woods, isthisit?
Well Now WTF?, www.wellnow.wtf
Afro Futures_UK: Unravelling New Futures, Firstsite, Colchester, UK
2019
Super Black, Firstsite, Colchester, UK
Thick/Er Black Lines present a screening of Black British Women/Femme Filmmakers, 180 The Strand, London, UK
Vague But Exciting, Vivid Projects, Birmingham, UK
WRO Biennale, Wroclaw, Poland
Afrotech Fest, Rich Mix, London, UK
WE RUN THIS, BOM, Birmingham, UK
2017
Cybertwee exhibition, Cybertwee Virtual Headquarters app
2016
Futura Free: A Sensing, 198 Contemporary Arts & Learning, London, UK
Galleri CC at Supermarket Art Fair 2016, Stockholm, Sweden
Abandoned Margins: Policing the Black Female Body, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, USA
2015
Fierce Festival 2015, BOM, Birmingham, UK
2014
Fierce Festival 2014, Friction Arts, Birmingham, UK, and online at thisistomorrow.info
New Art West Midlands, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, UK
PROJECTS
Commission for The Collective in memory of Bob Lee, London
Visiting Practitioner, Chelsea College of Arts, London
Algo | Afro Futures, Vivid Projects, Birmingham. Recording of performance livestream here.
Young Art Kommunity (YAK) workshops, Firstsite, online. Video 'Our House' available here, part of the exhibition 'House Share'
Youth Collective Workshops, Camden Arts Centre, online
Cyberrr Sounds, part of NEAR FUTURE, Montez Press Radio
It Gets Lighter From Here, event for Winter Solstice for Culture Central (via Vivid Projects), online
1997 BC, a commission for Big Window accompanied by essay 'Regarding the Nineteen-Nineties' by Ketter Weissman, www.bigwindow.org
Green Screen Dreams workshop, part of Late At Tate Britain: Dystopian Narratives, Tate Britain, London, UK
Artist talk "The Conch", South London Gallery, London, UK
Family Artist in Residence workshops, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK
Living on the Margins conference 2019, University of Westminster, London, UK
Cyber Grrrl workshop, BOM, Birmingham, UK
Guest speaker at 14-18 Now workshop, Lewisham Southwark College, London, UK
Panel conversation "Navigating Spaces Switching Locations", Grand Union, Birmingham, UK
Panel conversation "Democracy and Data" as part of Hello Culture, Birmingham, UK
Panel conversation "IRL to URL", BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
Screening/talk at Jenn Nkiru Presents: New Transmissions, New Pathways, ICA, London, UK
Q&As as part of Random Acts Playback, the Phoenix, Leicester and Flatpack Hub, Birmingham, UK
Accelerator Artist Talks, Birmingham School of Art, UK
First Acts Future Ambassador for Random Acts, UK
*Dancing Girl Emoji* residency, online via Delta Sorority
Panel conversation "Gender Resistance in Utopia", 198 Contemporary Arts & Learning, London, UK
"Taking Up Space", a commission for Channel 4's Random Acts, UK
Video editing/green screen workshops in partnership with MAIA Creatives and Birmingham City Council, UK
SOUP Part One: Feminism residency, STRYX arts, Birmingham, UK
Created new work for journal Contemporary Other
Contributed to an ongoing secret online project by They Are Here
Commissioned to create new work for event µChip 3, Birmingham, UK
Screening/panel conversation "Online Social Networks As Medium", mac, Birmingham, UK