Otobong Nkanga
© Wim van Dongen
Sikkens Prize 2026 for internationally renowned artist Otobong Nkanga
Otobong Nkanga (1974, Kano, Nigeria) will receive the Sikkens Prize 2026 on Monday, 26 October.
The Sikkens Prize honours an artist or collective who is pioneering in the field of colour. The prize is awarded to Otobong Nkanga because, in a time that calls for both imagination and responsibility, she shows that the power of colour begins where it awakens - in the earth, in the community, in life itself. The artist receives a sum of €75,000. She will also be honoured with the exhibition Humus Blues at Singer Laren, opening immediately after the award ceremony and on view for four months.
The Sikkens Prize highlights an individual or collective every two years who makes a significant contribution to the field of colour. The prize is a mark of recognition and appreciation for exceptional achievements in which colour, as a fundamental force, shapes and transforms the world. The prize was first awarded in 1959 to architect and designer Gerrit Rietveld and most recently, in 2024, to Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist. Past laureates include artists Donald Judd and Bridget Riley, designer Hella Jongerius, architects David Chipperfield and Le Corbusier, and landscape architect Piet Oudolf, designer of amongst others the sculpture garden at Singer Laren and the High Line in New York.
The Sikkens Prize 2026 is awarded to Otobong Nkanga (1974, Kano, Nigeria) because she reveals where colour truly comes from. In her sculptures, tapestries, drawings and installations - shown from Paris and Lausanne to Kanazawa, New York and Venice - pigments and minerals are not passive matter but active witnesses: of landscapes and lives, of extraction and reconstruction. Her work connects body and landscape, the local and the global, the personal and the political. In an era that cries out for imagination and responsibility, she shows that the power of colour begins where it originates - in the earth, in the community, in life itself. In doing so, her practice aligns closely with the mission of the Sikkens Prize.
Otobong Nkanga has had solo exhibitions at institutions including Mam in Paris and MCBA Lausanne (exhibition I dreamt of you in colours), Kunsthaus Bregenz, Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp and MoMA in New York. Nkanga has also participated in major international exhibitions, including the Biennale Arte 2026 in Venice, documenta 14 in Kassel and the Sydney Biennial. She has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Sharjah Biennial 14 Prize (2019) and the 2025 Nasher Sculpture Prize.
Exhibitions in Laren and Amsterdam
For the first time, the Sikkens Foundation honours the Sikkens Prize laureate with an exhibition. Otobong Nkanga’s solo exhibition Humus Blues is on view from 27 October 2026 to 28 February 2027 at Singer Laren. In her work she explores the interconnection between people, landscape and raw materials, as well as themes such as identity, power and change. Featuring sculptures, textiles, drawings, paintings, photographs and poetry, the exhibition offers a multifaceted introduction to her body of work, in which colour plays a key role – a quality for which the Sikkens Prize jury has recognised her. Monumental works by Nkanga will also be on display in the 30-year anniversary exhibition ReflAction at the Art Space of the AkzoNobel Art Foundation in Amsterdam.
The Sikkens Foundation stimulates social, cultural and scientific developments in which colour plays a defining role - both literally, in the application of colour in art, architecture and design, and figuratively, as a language for identity, community and change. The independent foundation, established in 1972 and supported by AkzoNobel, contributes to public awareness and the development of knowledge in this field through the Mondrian Lecture, the biennial Sikkens Prize and publications. The board - which also serves as the jury - consists of leading professionals from the worlds of art, culture and science, who closely follow international developments in the field of colour. The current board members are: Hester Alberdingk Thijm, Karin Amatmoekrim, Lennart Booij (chair), Indy Kisoen, Annet Lekkerkerker, Rashid Novaire, Stephan Petermann, Violette Schönberger, Okke Suurenbroek and Maarten de Vries.
Sikkens Foundation
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1077 WW Amsterdam