Born in 1974, Kano, Nigeria
Lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium
A visual artist and performer, Nkanga began her art studies at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria and continued at the École Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. She was at the residency program at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
In 2008 she obtained her Masters in the Performing Arts at Dasarts, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Otobong Nkanga's drawings, installations, photographs and sculptures variously examine ideas around land and the value connected to natural resources.
In the work of Otobong Nkanga, activities and performance permeate all kinds of media and motivate photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, installation and video, though all the different works are thematically connected through architecture and landscape. As a human trace that testifies of ways of living and environmental issues, architecture and landscape act as a sounding board for narration and "the performative". According to the artist herself, she uses her body and voice in live performances or in videos to become the protagonist in her work.
However, her presence serves mostly as a self-effacing catalyst, an invisible hand that sets the artistic process in motion. Nkanga negotiates the completion of the cycle of art between the aesthetic realm of display and a strategy of de-sublimation that repeatedly pushes the status of the artwork into contingency. In many of her works Nkanga reflects metonymically on the use and cultural value connected to natural resources, exploring how meaning and function are relative within cultures, and revealing different roles and histories for the same products, particularly within the context of the artist's autobiography and memories.
Nkanga's recent shows and performances include:
Cadence, MoMA, New York, USA (2024), Otobong Nkanga. Craving for Southern Light, IVAM, Valencia, Spain (2023); Gently Basking in Debris, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, USA; Underneath the Shade We Lay Grounded, Sint-Janshospitaal, Bruges, Belgium (2022); Unearthed, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2021); Of Cords Curling around Mountains, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy (2021-2022); When Looking Across teh Sea, Do You Dream?, Villa Arson, Nice, France (2021); Uncertain Where the Next Wind Blows, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway (2020-2021); Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlin, (2020) ; From Where I Stand, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), Middlesbrough (2020) ; From Where I Stand, Tate St Yves, Saint Yves (2019) ; Every Leaf Is an Eye, Goteborgs Konsthall, (2019) ; Homeless Souls, Louisiana Art Museum, Copenhague, (2019) ; May you live in intersting times, 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, (2019) ; Sharjah Biennal 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber, Sharjah (2019) ; Artes Mundi 8, National Museum Cardiff, (2018) ; Otobong Nkanga: To Dig a Hole that Collapses Again, MCA - Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2018) ; Belgian Art Prize, Bozar, Belgique (2017) ; Carved To Flow, Documenta 14, Athènes - Kassel (2017) ; The Encounter That Took a Part of Me, Nottingham Contemporary (2016) ; MHKA Anvers « Bruise and Lustre » (2015) ; Kadist Foundation Paris Comot your Eyes Make I borrow you Mine (2015) ; Portikus, Francfort / Main, Allemagne (2015) ; Unisono 28 : Otobong Nkanga - Taste of a stone, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam, Hollande (2015) ; Diaspore, 14 Rooms Basel, Suisse, (2014) ; In Pursuit of Bling, 8ème Biennale de Berlin, Berlin, Allemagne (2014) ; Glimmer Fragments - Symposium "Landing and confessions", Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas (2014) ; 11ème Biennale de Sharjah, Sharjah, Emirats Arabes-Unis, (2013) ; Across the Board: Politics of Representation, Tate Modern, The Tanks, Londres, Royaume-Uni (2012) ; Inventing world: The Artist as citizen, Biennale du Bénin, Cotonou, Bénin (2012) ; Tropicomania: The Social life of Plants, Betonsalon, Center of art and research. Associated venue of La Triennale 2012 - Intense Proximity. Paris, France (2012) ; and Object Atlas - Fieldwork in the Museum, Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt-am-Main, Allemagne (2012) ; ARS 11, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finlande (2011).