Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi’s (she/her) was born in Chicago in 1943. Her work spans sculpture, performance, photography, drawing, and poetry. She completed a BA in fine arts with a minor in dance in 1966 and an MFA in sculpture in 1971, both at California State University, Los Angeles, and spent the year between her undergraduate and graduate studies enrolled at Waseda University, Tokyo. Her foundational training in dance included classes in the Horton technique in Los Angeles and in Kabuki theater in Tokyo. While a student, Nengudi served as an educator at the Watts Towers Art Center with artist Noah Purifoy and at the Pasadena Museum of Art (now Norton Simon Museum), where early Happenings took place. In 1977, Nengudi’s first solo exhibition was presented at Just Above Midtown gallery, New York. In
2019–21, a retrospective of her work was co-organized by the Lenbachhaus, Munich, and Museu de Arte
de São Paulo, and traveled to the Denver Art Museum and Philadelphia Museum of Art. She was
awarded the Nasher Prize in 2023. Dia’s engagement with Nengudi began in 2017 with an invitation to
participate in the institution’s long-running Artists on Artists Lecture Series and continues with a long-
term presentation of her work at Dia Beacon, which opened in February 2023. Nengudi lives in Colorado
Springs.