Otobong Nkanga and the work cycles of land and color
Published on 08/29/2026 at 17:18 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Otobong Nkanga has built a practice that tracks how land, bodies and resources are entangled in long arcs of extraction and care. Her recent large survey I dreamt of you in colours between Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris and the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne shows how these concerns have unfolded over roughly thirty years of work as the museum in Lausanne summarizes. MCBA exhibition page
Retrospective arcs in recent exhibitions
The Lausanne exhibition Otobong Nkanga. I dreamt of you in colours brings together around 140 works and is organized with Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, framing her output as a retrospective cross-section of three decades. e-flux announcement The show spans drawings, tapestries, sculptures and installations, emphasizing recurring motifs such as scarred landscapes and fragile infrastructures of support.
According to the Lausanne museum, the exhibition tracks how specific images and materials reappear in different constellations, underscoring Nkanga's method of revisiting themes rather than closing them. MCBA exhibition page This framing positions I dreamt of you in colours as a work cycle in itself, connecting early drawings to recent large-scale environments.
Key series from kolanut to soft offerings
Across projects like Landversation, Contained Measures of Kolanut and Taste of a Stone, Nkanga has repeatedly used conversation formats and performative displays to explore how specific resources carry layered histories of trade and violence, as recent institutional texts on her work emphasize. HFBK Hamburg press release In Hamburg, her first solo exhibition in the city focused on Contained Measures of Kolanut as a lens onto the cultural history of the Nigerian kolanut.
At the same time, installations like Soft Offerings to Silenced Voices and to All Who Have Turned to Dust at the 61st Venice Biennale's Central Pavilion have extended this vocabulary into sculptural environments that literally wrap institutional architectures in materials tied to local production, as coverage of her Venice contribution notes. Biennale Arte 2026 artist page This continuity across venues shows how individual works feed into broader cycles rather than standing alone.
All news and background on Otobong Nkanga
For further coverage of Otobong Nkanga's exhibitions, awards and installations across Europe and beyond, the AD HOC NEWS archive offers additional context and analysis.
The work core between sculpture and textile
Nkanga works across drawing, tapestry, sculpture, photography and performance, often combining these media in installations that foreground process and material. Her solo exhibition list ranges from Each Seed a Body at Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas to Shaped by Many in Kanazawa, underlining how she adapts each series to specific institutional contexts. Artist's solo exhibitions list
Current state of the practice
Otobong Nkanga's current trajectory is defined by long-term exhibition cycles like I dreamt of you in colours and forthcoming projects such as the color-focused exhibition Humus Blues linked to the Sikkens Prize, reflecting an ongoing preoccupation with how color and matter register social histories. Artdependence report on Sikkens Prize
Otobong Nkanga at a glance
- Artist: Otobong Nkanga
- Medium / Genre: Installation, sculpture and textile-based practice with drawing and performance
- Born: 1974, Kano, Nigeria
- Place(s) of practice: Studio in Antwerp and work between Europe and West Africa
- Active since: Late 1990s, with international solo exhibitions from the mid-2000s
- Key work groups: Landversation, Contained Measures of Kolanut, Taste of a Stone, I dreamt of you in colours
- Current/last exhibition: Otobong Nkanga. I dreamt of you in colours, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne, survey exhibition running in 2026
- Major collections: Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, Tate (London), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, several European public collections
- Awards: Nasher Prize for Contemporary Sculpture (2025), Sikkens Prize 2026, Finkenwerder Art Prize 2026
- Next date: currently no announced date in the 30-day window
Frequently asked questions about Otobong Nkanga
Where can I see Otobong Nkanga's recent retrospective work cycle?
The large exhibition Otobong Nkanga. I dreamt of you in colours, developed with Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris and the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne, presents around 140 works from roughly three decades of practice in 2026.
Which themes connect series like Landversation and Contained Measures of Kolanut?
Both series focus on specific resources and how they carry histories of trade, extraction and cultural memory, using conversations, sculpture and multimedia installations to connect local materials to wider economic and political structures.
What recognition has Otobong Nkanga recently received for her work with color and material?
In addition to the Nasher Prize for Contemporary Sculpture in 2025, Nkanga has been named Sikkens Prize 2026 laureate, with the foundation highlighting her material-based approach to color and linking the award to the solo exhibition Humus Blues at Singer Laren.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
