Otobong Nkanga is a visual artist and live performer working with installation, photography, drawing and sculpture.
She makes use of the body and voice in live performances and videos or sometimes becoming the protagonist in some of her photography works to convey and interrogate implications of our acts in varied environments and contexts. With the use of urban biography and everyday observations, Nkanga reveals the layered and complicated relationships between everyday resources/ materials, landscapes and the unseen social, political, and economic structures that form and are formed by them. Nkanga works in various mediums such as drawing, installation, video and performance.
In 2010, Nkanga was part of Iniva’s exhibition ‘Whose map is it?’ which explored new approaches to mapping. The selected artists engaged with the social and political issues often omitted from the traditional map. The exhibition was curated by Teresa Cisneros and Christine Takengny.
Her works have been exhibited in a number of institutions, including Documenta 14 (2017); Tate Modern (2012); La Bank Gallery (2011); HKA Museum, Belgium (2010); The Studio Museum in Harlem (2008); The Tamayo Museum, Mexico City (2007); Hayward Gallery (2005); and Taipei Biennial (2004).
Nkanga initially studied at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria and continued at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts Paris, France. She completed an artist’s residency at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam and has finished a post-graduate program at Dasarts, Advanced Studies in the performing Arts, Amsterdam.
She currently lives and works in Antwerp.