salt 17 Artist Talk
Adama Delphine Fawundu in conversation with Yvonne Mpwo
Wednesday, September 24, 2025 | 6–8 pm | Free
Join artist Adama Delphine Fawundu as she discusses her work and the exhibition salt 17: Adama Delphine Fawundu in conversation with Yvonne Mpow. This free artist talk in the Dumke Auditorium at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts will deepen your understanding of the works on view in the latest salt exhibition and their connection to the UMFA’s African Art collection.
The works in this exhibition were made with a process that Fawundu calls “kpoto patchwok,” a combination of the Mende word for gathering fruits and nuts for communal nourishment (kpoto) and the Krio word for piecing together textiles (patchwok). By drawing together materials from Congo, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Brazil, Nigeria, and Utah, Fawundu stitches together a collective history of the African diaspora that imagines a more interconnected future. Her work is displayed in conversation with objects from the UMFA’s African Art collection, which were selected by the artist for their resonance with her practice.
About the Artist
Adama Delphine Fawundu
Adama Delphine Fawundu is a visual artist based in Brooklyn, NY of Mende, Bubi, Krim ancestry. Her work explores themes such as indigenisation, ancestral memory and activating the radical imagination. She co-authored the book MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora. Her awards include the Guggenheim Fellowship, Catchlight Fellowship, Anonymous Was A Woman Award, and Rema Hort Mann Artist Grant. Select permanent collections include the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Princeton University Museum, Bryn Mawr College, Norton Museum of Art, and the David C. Driskell Art Collection. She is an Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at Columbia University.
salt 17 Featured Writer
Yvonne Mpwo
Yvonne Mpwo is a Congolese-American curator based in New York. Yvonne’s work centers on producing exhibitions in partnership with creative technologists to explore reclamation, indigeneity, and sovereignty across virtual and physical realms. As the founder of bana’pwo, a cross-cultural artist residency, Yvonne creates opportunities for artists, researchers, and architects worldwide to engage with the rich cultural landscape of the Congo. In her role as Program Director for the 2025 Congo Biennale in Kinshasa, Yvonne is organizing programs that deepen the Biennale’s engagement with local and global audiences, focusing on sustainable community impact, cultural memory, and spatial storytelling. She is currently pursuing an M.S in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture (CCCP) at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP).