Craft Around the Country

Leilah Babirye's New Exhibition is the Wedding Event of the Year

A political refugee from Uganda, the New York–based artist combines found materials and handcrafted wood and ceramics into evocative totems.

By Kate Schuler
September 7, 2026

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Photo by Stephen White & Co. © Leilah Babirye

Leilah Babirye's 2021 sculpture Nakawaddwa from the Kuchu Ngabi (Antelope) Clan incorporates glazed ceramic, wood, wax, wire, bicycle chain, and found objects, 33.5 x 14 x 13.5 in.

In the center of a gallery at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, visitors are invited to celebrate a queer wedding. Two gender-ambiguous ceramic figures, representing the newlyweds, are fused together. They share a headdress, and a name—Naki and Naki.

The towering charred-wood sculptures are the work of Leilah Babirye, whose new exhibition Embaga ya Naki ne Naki (Wedding of Naki and Naki) runs at the Massachusetts museum through January 18, 2027.

For this body of work, Babirye created the wedding party—including bridesmaids, groomsmen, a flower girl, and ring bearer—from clay and found objects. Opulent headpieces and rich glazes pooling across the figures bring layers of adornment and shine to the celebration.

“We wanted to create a sense of conviviality, and that you are, in some sense, bearing witness, participating, or invited to partake in it,” says Max Gruber, curatorial assistant at the museum.

The installation is an act of love as well as defiance for the artist, who fled Uganda in 2015 after being publicly outed in her home country, which had recently passed laws imposing severe punishments for homosexuality.

Photo by Olympia Shannon © Leilah Babirye

Tuli Mukwano (We Are in Love) III, 2025, glazed ceramic, wood, bicycle tire inner tubes, and found objects, 28 x 16.5 x 8.5 in.

Babirye began working in ceramics after arriving in New York. Her formal training in Kampala focused on wood sculpture; her curiosity and bold approach to materials led her to develop a process of carving with a chainsaw and charring the wood with a blowtorch. In both clay and wood, her work reflects the traditions of West African masks, totems, and sculptures.

Found objects bestow identity and character to her work. Babirye weaves, ties, and welds objects like bicycle inner tubes, chains, gears, soda cans, and hardware to adorn her figures with hairstyles, headdresses, or veils. Crowned with these elaborate constructions, she imbues the figures with royal standing, in contrast to the often-degrading treatment queer people have experienced in Uganda.

Standing watch over the wedding party, the immense wood sculptures become the aunties, uncles, and elders that fill the pews at family weddings. In a world where biological family is not always accepting of queer people, Babirye expands the definition of kinship to include chosen family and community. Such themes of belonging occupy a central place in Babirye’s work, reflected in the names of her sculptures, which attach Buganda clan names and royal titles to the figures to create a lasting lineage for queer identity.

A new book of essays and interviews—the artist’s first—will be published to mark the exhibition.

Kalibbala from the Kuchu Nsenene (Grasshopper) Clan, 2023–24, glazed ceramic, wood, wax, copper, wire, nails, bicycle tire inner tubes, and found objects, 58 x 12 x 19.75 in.

Kate Schuler is a writer, potter, and editor based in Washington, DC.

Learn more about Leilah Babirye and her new exhibition online.

Exhibition Website Artist Instagram

This article was made possible with support from the Windgate Foundation.

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