Leilah Babirye (born 1985, Kampala, Uganda) is an artist and activist who lives and works in Brooklyn. She studied art at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda (2007–10), and participated in the Fire Island Artist Residency in 2015. The artist fled her native Uganda to New York Cityin 2015 after being publicly outed in a local newspaper. In spring 2018, Babirye was granted asylum with support from the African Services Committee and the NYC Anti-Violence Project. Throughout her multidisciplinary practice, Babirye transforms wood, ceramic, found materials, and paint into figurative subjects that address issues surrounding identity, sexuality, and human rights. Babirye explores the diversity of LGBTQI identities and endows each subject with regal dignity and expressive, tactile beauty. Babirye’s solo exhibitions include Ebika Bya ba Kuchu mu Buganda (Kuchu Clans of Buganda) at Gordon Robichaux, New York (2020) and Los Angeles (2022) and Ebika Bya ba Kuchu mu Buganda (Kuchu Clans of Buganda) II at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (2021). Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitons includng Flight: A Collective History, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (2019); Stonewall 50, Contemporary Arts Museum (CAMH), Houston (2019); and at Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY (2019), where she presented two monumental commissioned sculptures.
(as of 2023)
