Nyanga

Leena Similu San Francisco January 21 - March 7, 2025

Nyanga, the newest body of work from Leena Similu, represents the artist’s continuing examination of the construction of individual bodies from history, language, and relationships. A term in Cameroonian Pidgin English, Nyanga embodies charm, stylishness, magic, and beauty. The work examines the hybridity of natural beauty and bodily comportment, reflecting on where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going.

The work also navigates the tension between beauty and the grotesque. It interrogates the extremes of beautification—where the pursuit of perfection edges into distortion, exaggeration, or discomfort. By juxtaposing the alluring with the unsettling, Nyanga invites viewers to question the societal standards that define beauty and the lengths we go to achieve it.

This work examines masks, both literal and metaphorical, as symbols of defense, self-expression, repression, and projection. They reveal the personas we construct to conform to expectations while hiding insecurities, anxieties, or our authentic selves.

Nyanga celebrates beauty’s power while exposing its contradictions, offering a nuanced look at how natural and artificial cultural ideals, elegant and grotesque, shape identity and self-perception.

Experience Nyanga, on view in The Future Perfect’s San Francisco gallery beginning January 21. 

Exhibited Works