Life
Nigerian Belgian artist Otobong Nkanga wins $100,000 Nasher Prize for sculpture
The eighth laureate of the Nasher Prize, an award given by the Dallas-based Nasher Sculpture Center museum that comes with a US$100,000 prize, is Otobong Nkanga, a Nigeria-born, Belgium-based artist known for her tapestries, sculptural installations and performances that articulate power dynamics within and across landscapes.
“Nkanga is broadening the concept of sculpture to be a sculpture about the anthropology of materials,” Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, the director of Castello di Rivoli and a Nasher Prize juror, said at a press event announcing the newest laureate. “Her work has so many trajectories embedded in it, from Arte Povera to tropical architecture.”
Nkanga – who was born in Kano, Nigeria, grew up between Nigeria and France and is now based in Antwerp – creates works that incorporate textiles, glass, found objects and more, while also using earth, plants, stones, minerals and water. She often tracks the exploitation and extraction of materials, while also imagining possible solutions to our present ecological predicaments.