Otobong Nkanga

In her diverse creative practice, Otobong Nkanga scrutinizes the intricate social, political, and material connections among bodies, territories, minerals, and the earth.

Biography of Otobong Nkanga

Otobong Nkanga was born in 1974 in Kano, Nigeria. She spent most of her childhood in Lagos, where her fascination with art and the environment blossomed. During her youth, she would gather minerals and sketch with mica on the sidewalks of Lagos.

In her teenage years, her family relocated to Paris, France, following her mother's career. Nkanga pursued her art education at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife and furthered her studies at Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Sadly, her mother passed away in a car accident just as she began her university studies.

Later, she pursued a master's degree in Performing Arts at DasArts in Amsterdam, graduating in 2008.

Nkanga's artistic journey includes residencies at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam from 2002 to 2004, the DAAD Berlin program from 2013 to 2014, and at the Martin Gropius-Bau in 2019.

Otobong Nkanga received the Special Mention Award at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Italy, in 2019, and was the recipient of the 2017 Belgium Art Prize. Additionally, she has been honored with prestigious awards such as the Peter-Weiss-Preis (2019), Sharjah Biennial Prize (2019), Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award (2019), Flemish Cultural Award for Visual Arts - Ultimas (2018), and the Yanghyun Prize (2015).

Her recent solo exhibitions include "Gently Basking in Debris" at Frist Art Museum in Nashville (2023), "Underneath the Shade We Lay Grounded" at Sint-Janshospitaal in Bruges (2022), "‘Otobong Nkanga solo" at Gallery Mendes Wood DM in Sao Paulo (2021), and many more.

Furthermore, Otobong Nkanga's artworks have been featured in group exhibitions, including "Beyond a Certain Point There is No Return, A Tale of A Tub" at Space for Contemporary Art and Culture in Rotterdam (2023), "Finis Terrae" at Galerie Geukens & De Vil in Antwerp (2022), "lnaspettatamente" at Cloud Seven in Brussels (2021), among others. 

Currently, the artist lives in Brussels, where she continues to work. 

Otobong Nkanga's Art Style

Throughout her body of work, Nkanga tackles themes of neocolonialism, ecological violence, and environmental preservation. Employing various mediums including drawings, photographs, paintings, textiles, videos, and sculptures, she is particularly recognized for her adeptness in creating installations.

Key features in her artwork include the concept of "material emotionality," which proposes that objects possess the capacity to feel, think, and recollect; she employs this notion to articulate the experiences of natural elements within her installations.

By challenging the boundaries between minimalist and conceptual art, as well as between sensual and surreal approaches, the artist's research-oriented methodology interconnects humans with landscapes, organic and inorganic materials, and economies of the Global North and Global South.

Nkanga establishes pathways that translate elements from the natural world—such as plants, herbs, minerals, and living organisms—into interconnected, multifaceted scenarios that evoke themes of memory, labor, home, care, ownership, emotion, touch, and scent.