Otobong Nkanga

Otobong Nkanga (born September 13, 1974 in Kano, Nigeria) is a Nigerian-Belgian visual artist whose multidisciplinary practice explores ecology, resource extraction, colonial history, labor, and the interconnected relationships between bodies and land. Working across installation, tapestry, sculpture, drawing, photography, performance, video, poetry, and sound, Nkanga examines how natural materials are extracted, transformed, valued, circulated, and consumed across different geographical and economic systems.  Nkanga studied at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris before earning a master’s degree in performing arts through DasArts, Advanced Research in Theatre and Dance Studies, in Amsterdam. Her work often engages geology, botany, mining, environmental violence, global trade, memory, healing, and repair, using layered textiles, organic materials, sculptural constellations, poetry, and participatory projects to consider how human histories remain embedded within landscapes and material objects.  Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Nasher Sculpture Center, Tate St Ives, Zeitz MOCAA, Castello di Rivoli, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Gropius Bau, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. She has received the Nasher Prize, the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award, the Belgian Art Prize, the Yanghyun Art Prize, and a Special Mention at the 58th Venice Biennale. Otobong Nkanga lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium.