Nsumi Collective

Nsumi or Nsumi Collective, is an art collective formed in 2001 and based in New York City. Members of Nsumi claim that the group spawns art collectives and experimental groups through a gift-economy consulting project, workshops, art exhibitions and performances, zines, academic research, and public interventions. The group's members include educators, artists, architects, landscape designers, scientists, curators, collectors, un-trained artists and non-artists. Nsumi operates fluidly, frequently collaborating with artists and other art collectives such as Trevor Paglen, Rainer Ganahl, and Peter Fend, in addition to artists who participate anonymously. Sometimes the collective fully or partially joins other art groups, adopting an individual or quasi-individual identity. Occasionally Nsumi will exchange or swap members with different collectives, bring on temporary members, or work with artists who join the group for one-off events and exhibitions. Nsumi blurs its own boundaries since it is unclear which identity the group is operating through at a given moment or who exactly is involved. Nsumi operates under different monikers, such as Space Puppets, Lightning Chasers or Nsumi Group, and has been known to appear in the same group exhibition under multiple individual and group names. Nsumi also appears in more conventional art exhibitions at galleries, universities and museums including the Queens Museum, Deitch Projects and the Center for Architecture in New York City. Their work has appeared in Satya magazine, ARTE Television and TRACKS TV in Europe, Total Theatre Magazine, The New York Times, Archinect, The Economist, the New York Sun, and Art News.