Otobong Nkanga’s multidisciplinary practice examines the complex social, political, ecological and material relationships between bodies, territories, minerals and the earth. Through drawing, installation, performance, photography, textiles and sculpture, Nkanga creates pathways translating the natural world – its plants, herbs, minerals and living organisms – into networked, aggregated situations evoking memory, labour, home, care, ownership, emotion, touch and smell. Nkanga deftly weaves insights from geology, botany, poetry and non-Western knowledge systems. Her works’ allusions to the reparative potentials of connectivity urgently gesture towards the possibility of more livable futures. Born in 1974 in Kano, Nigeria, Otobong Nkanga lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. Her recent solo exhibitions include: a site-specific commission at The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, New York, USA (2024); Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia, Spain (2023); Sint-Janshospitaal, Bruges (2022); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz (2021); Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin (2021); Villa Arson, Nice (2021); Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Sandvika (2020); Gropius Bau, Berlin (2020); Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (2020); Tate St Ives (2019); Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town (2019); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2018); Kunsthal Aarhus (2017); Nottingham Contemporary (2016); Beirut Art Center (2016); Tate Modern, London (2015). Otobong Nkanga is the 2025 Nasher Prize Laureate and the recipient of the 2025 Zeitz MOCAA Honorary Award. In 2024, she was awarded the Golden Afro Artistic Award in the Visual Arts (2024) and the inaugural Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme (2019); the Special Mention Award at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Italy (2019); the Belgium Art Prize (2017); and the Yanghyun Prize (2015). Other notable awards include the Peter-Weiss-Preis, the Sharjah Biennial Prize, and the Flemish Cultural Award for Visual Arts – Ultima Prize.
