Photograph by Brian W. Ferry
In the wake of Uganda’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2014, artist LEILAH BABIRYE fled her homeland for the shores of the United States, withher first stop being Fire Island. On the eve of her breakthrough solo show, the daring sculptor uses her work to spread a message of love, acceptance, and defiance. COLE HARRELL visits her in the studio. Photographs by BRIAN W. FERRY.
I’ve just gotten off the Morgan Avenue L stop in Brooklyn. It’s 2:17 on a particularly sweltering afternoon in April, and I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have given up on the suit and tie and opted for something altogether more…douillet. As I step inside artist Leilah Babirye’s studio, however, the city feels worlds away. Wood shavings collect on the floor like remnants of some ecstatic ritual. Chains, bicycle tires, nails, ceramic shards—raw matter destined for rebirth through Babirye’s unmistakable visual language. Her sculptures possess the spiritual gravity of sacred objects whileremaining unmistakably contemporary: portraits of resilience forged from exile, memory, and defiant celebration. Born in Kampala, Uganda, Babirye was forced to flee her home country after being publicly outed as gay. Since moving to New York City in 2015, she has emerged as one of the most compelling sculptural voices of her generation, creating richly textured works that honor Uganda’s queer community through references to clan systems, royal histories, and the broader visual traditions of African sculpture. Discarded materials are imbued with a regal presence in her hands, an intentional nod toward the language of rejection so often directed at LGBTQ people in the African Diaspora.
For those of us engaged with African art—I’m a specialist focused on classical works from West and Central Africa—Babirye’s work occupies a fascinating and necessary space. Her sculptures are not ethnographic or nostalgic gestures; rather, they participate in an evolving continuum of African artistic expression, one capable of carrying ancestral memory while confronting the urgencies of the present moment. Represented by Galerie Max Hetzler and Gordon Robichaux Gallery, Babirye’s work has been the subject of several solo gallery presentations in New York, Berlin, andLondon, as well as exhibitions at the de Young Museum in San Francisco; the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield, England; and the 2024 Venice Biennale. Her latest exhibition, “Kwanjula kwo Omugenyi Kuchu (Introduction of My Queer Lover),” is on view at the Institute for Contemporary Art inBoston until January. I spoke with Babirye about materiality, queerness, exile, and the enduring power of sculpture to give voice where history has too often imposed silence.