Otobong Nkanga: We Come from Fire and Return to Fire | London Gallery Weekend

For her inaugural exhibition with Lisson Gallery, Otobong Nkanga presents new sculptural objects, tapestries and a sound installation, as well as wall-hung and floor-based works – combining materials as diverse as clay, rope, glass, wood, textiles, oils and herbs. As an evocation of natural environments, Nkanga incorporates the images and properties of various stones and minerals into a new, monumental carpet, while towers of raku-fired ceramics create intermittent forests of scorched tree trunks. For every suggestion of destruction – a parched or ruined landscape – there is also the possibility of hope and renewal in the same space – a...

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Installation view: Otobong Nkanga, We Come from Fire and Return to Fire, Lisson Gallery London (24 May – 3 August 2024), © Otobong Nkanga, Courtesy Lisson Gallery.
Otobong Nkanga, 'Custodian', 2024 (detail).

Otobong Nkanga (born 1974, Kano, Nigeria) lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium.

Her most recent solo exhibitions include: Sint-Janshospitaal, Bruges, Belgium (2022); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2021); Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy (2021-2022); Villa Arson, Nice, France (2021); Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway (2020-2021); Gr...

Otobong Nkanga (born 1974, Kano, Nigeria) lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium.

Her most recent solo exhibitions include: Sint-Janshospitaal, Bruges, Belgium (2022); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2021); Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy (2021-2022); Villa Arson, Nice, France (2021); Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway (2020-2021); Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany (2020); MIMA, Middlesbrough, UK (2020); Tate St Ives, UK (2019); Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa (2019); Ar/ge kunst Galleria Museo, Bolzano, Italy (2018); MCA Chicago, US (2018); Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark (2017); Nottingham Contemporary, UK (2016); Beirut Art Center, Lebanon (2016); Tate Modern, London, UK (2015); Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany (2015); Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam, The Netherlands (2015); Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany (2015), Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium (2015); Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France (2015).

Nkanga was given the Special Mention Award at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Italy, 2019 and won the 2017 Belgium Art Prize. Other notable awards include the Peter-Weiss-Preis, Sharjah Biennial Prize, the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award, the Flemish Cultural Award for Visual Arts - Ultima and the Yanghyun Prize.

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