Paul Mpagi Sepuya (1982)  lives and works in Los Angeles, where he received an MFA in photography at UCLA. Sepuya makes photographs, books, and installations rooted in portraiture, homoerotic visual culture, and the function of the studio. Portraiture is the foundation of his practice.  He has participated in Artist-in-Residence programs at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Center for Photography at Woodstock, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Fire Island Artist Residency. Sepuya’s work in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the International Center for Photography, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Milwaukee Art Museum, among others. He is a recipient of the 2017 Rema Hort Mann Foundation’s grant for emerging Los Angeles artists.