Otobong Nkanga’s multi-disciplinary practice spans tapestry, drawing, photography, installation, video and performance.
Her visual investigation addresses the politics of land and its relationship to the body, as well as the complex and fraught histories of land acquisition and ownership by connecting threads that reveal the entanglements of bodies, land and natural resources. Nkanga is concerned with raw material production and how mining and other forms of extraction leave irreversible traces in the landscape.
Full of literary, religious, and geological references, her work sheds light on how production affects both humans and nature, but also how dependent the world is on this circulation of goods. In Nkanga, the theme is often given a poetic setting, where the titles are central to the understanding of the works.
Her visual investigation addresses the politics of land and its relationship to the body, as well as the complex and fraught histories of land acquisition and ownership by connecting threads that reveal the entanglements of bodies, land and natural resources. Nkanga is concerned with raw material production and how mining and other forms of extraction leave irreversible traces in the landscape.
Full of literary, religious, and geological references, her work sheds light on how production affects both humans and nature, but also how dependent the world is on this circulation of goods. In Nkanga, the theme is often given a poetic setting, where the titles are central to the understanding of the works.
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Artworks by Otobong Nkanga
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Artist Otobong Nkanga speaks to curator Caroline Hancock on the occasion of her solo exhibition 'The Breath from Fertile Grounds' at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin.
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De Keuze van... Margitte Verwoerdt
I recently saw new work by Otobong Nkanga in Venice, in which she had copied whole pieces of sea coral through embroidery. It was beautifully arranged in glass cupboards and hung on the wall, it was so refined and elegant. In her work she explores the problems of the changing environment in a refined and highly aesthetic way.
Margitte Verwoerdt (kunsthistorica, zelfstandig adviseur en curator)
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Otobong Nkanga’s most recent solo exhibitions include the solo show "Of Cords Curling Around Mountains" at Castello di Rivoli, Turin Italy (2021), “Lingering on the Rim” at Lumen Travo Gallery; “When Looking Across the Sea, Do You Dream?” at Villa Arson, Nice (2021); “Uncertain Where the Next Wind Blows” at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway (2020-2021); “There's No Such Thing as Solid Ground” at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2020); “From Where I Stand” at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), Middlesbrough (2020-2021); “Acts at the Crossroads” at Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (2019); “From Where I Stand”, Tate St. Ives, St. Ives (2019); “A Lapse, a Stain, a Fall” at Ar/geKunst, Bolzano (2018); “To Dig a Hole that Collapses Again” at Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago (2018).
Otobong Nkanga is the 1st recipient of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award (Norway, 2019), and was awarded the Peter Weiss Award (Bochum, 2019), the Special Mention Award of the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (Venice, 2019), the 2019 Sharjah Biennial Award (Sharjah, 2019), the Flemish Cultural Award for Visual Arts - Ultima (Brussels, 2019), the Belgian Art Prize (Brussels, 2017) and the 8th Yanghyun Art Prize (Seoul, 2015).
Otobong Nkanga is the 1st recipient of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award (Norway, 2019), and was awarded the Peter Weiss Award (Bochum, 2019), the Special Mention Award of the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (Venice, 2019), the 2019 Sharjah Biennial Award (Sharjah, 2019), the Flemish Cultural Award for Visual Arts - Ultima (Brussels, 2019), the Belgian Art Prize (Brussels, 2017) and the 8th Yanghyun Art Prize (Seoul, 2015).
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