Otobong Nkanga prompts us to think about our relationships to land and the extraction of the world’s natural resources. Her multidisciplinary practice spans tapestries, drawings, photographs, installations, videos and performances. The exhibition, From Where I Stand on view at MIMA, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art in England from March 14 to June 28, 2020, explores the politics of land and its relationship to the body, histories of land acquisition and exploitation.
Born in Kano, Nigeria, Otobong Nkanga lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium and has over two decades experience of creating works that reflect on the processes and consequences of the extraction of natural resources from ethical, human and material perspectives. Nkanga received a Special Mention at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia and was awarded the 2015 Yanghyn prize and with Emeka Ogboh, the Sharjah Biennial 14 Prize and the 2017 Belgian Art Prize. In 2019, Nkanga was the recipient of the Ultimass-Flemish Prize for culture and the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme.
This major exhibition at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art in England presents works Nkanga made between 2008 and 2019. The show includes the bodies of work From Where I Stand, 2015; The Weight of Scars, 2015; In Pursuit of Bling, 2014 and Tsumeb Fragments, 2015.
Otobong Nkanga has previously presented performance and installation works at Tate Modern in 2012 and 2015. She has exhibited widely internationally, with solo shows including: A Lapse, a Stain, a Fall, ar/ge kunst, Bolzano, Italy 2018; To Dig a Hole That Collapses Again, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago 2018; Take Me (I’m Yours), Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan 2017; and The Breath from Fertile Grounds, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin, Ireland 2017.
She has exhibited in recent group exhibitions including Artes Mundi 8, National Museum Cardiff 2018; Manipulate the World, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden 2017, as well as in documenta 14 and numerous biennials including Venice, Dakar, Lyon, Berlin, Gwangju, Sharjah, Göteborg, Havana, São Paulo and EVA International. Her 2020 exhibitions include solo shows at Gropius Bau, Berlin, April 30 – August 2; and at Henie Onstad, Oslo, November 13, 2020 – February 21, 2021.