Otobong Nkanga. I dreamt of you in colours

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Since the late 1990s, Otobong Nkanga (born in Kano, Nigeria, in 1974, and based today in Antwerp, Belgium) has tackled themes of ecology and the relationship between the body and the land, creating powerful works of great visual presence. Following her studies at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris, and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, the artist explored issues relating to mining and the use of the earth’s resources, as well as the body in its relationship to space and the earth. She examines their complex social, political and material interconnections in a practice that runs through multiple mediums and forms of expression, including drawings, paintings, installations, tapestries, photographs, videos, sculptures, ceramics, performances, sound pieces, and poems.

“Otobong Nkanga. I dreamt of you in colours” features emblematic installations, photo series, recent works, and a significant number of drawings, some of which date from her early artmaking days and are being shown for the first time. The exhibition offers a cross-section of Nkanga’s protean body of work, from the start of her career right up to the present, tracing the genealogy of recurring subjects whose visual expression is constantly evolving. For her show, the artist reactivates certain works by introducing new elements added on site in a poetics of entanglement, creating connections between forms, materials, and ideas.

The featured works come from both public collections and private foundations as well as from private collections and the artist’s studio.