Otobong Nkanga

Throughout her performances, sculptures, drawings, paintings, textiles, photographs, and installations, Otobong Nkanga creates narratives that dwell on memory, environment, and the postcolonial histories of Africa and the Western world. She’s particularly interested in telling stories about the consumption of natural resources. Her series “In Pursuit of Bling” (2014), for example, includes a photograph of the artist holding a block of mica in front of her mouth, demonstrating the connection between body, land, and mineral. For a 2018 exhibition entitled “Transition,” the artist created a series of works on paper which broke the human figure down into fragments and integrated them into natural landscapes. Nkanga has enjoyed solo shows at the Gropius Bau, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Tate Modern, and the Castello di Rivoli, among other institutions. She has participated in Documenta and the São Paulo Bienal and received a special mention for her presentation at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Nkanga’s work belongs in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, the Tate, the Stedelijk Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Van Abbemuseum, among other institutions.