Samuel Nnorom (b. 1990, Abia, Nigeria) discovered his talent at the age of 9 while assisting his father at his shoe workshop. He started drawing customers who visited the shop while also being influenced by his mother's tailoring workshop. His body of work is typically constructed from pieces of Ankara/African wax print fabric scraps collected from tailors or cast-off clothing from homes, along with discarded foam from furniture workshops that are wrapped and stitched into bubbles of various colours and sizes. Through actions like sewing, rolling, tying, stringing, and suspending, he poetically navigates the boundaries between textile, painting, and sculpture. He belongs to the New Nsukka School of Art.
Read MoreNnorom's works has been recognised through various selected awards, including the equal winner of the Ettore e Ines Fico Prize at Artissima 2023 in Italy. He was a selected finalist for the Craft Council and Brookfield Properties Award in the UK in 2023, First Global Prize Winner of the M&C Saatchi and Saatchi Group Art for Change Award in 2022, and recipient of the first African Prize Cassirer Welz Award in South Africa in 2021.
Solo exhibitions include _Interwoven Narratives _(2024), Galerie Revel Paris, France; _Emotional Catch _(2023), Tiwani Contemporary, Lagos, Nigeria; _Truth and Conspiracy _(2023), Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy; _Points of Departures _(2023), Galerie Art Mûr, Montreal, Canada; _Politics of Clothes _(2023), Mitochondria Gallery, Houston, USA; _Politics of Fabrics _(2023), an expository solo exhibition at The Guest Artists Space Foundation by Yinka Shonibare, Lagos, Nigeria; and _Immigration and Integration _(2023), The Art House, Wakefield, UK.
Residencies include Black Rock Senegal (2023), BISO International Biennial of Sculpture of Ouagadougou Burkina-Faso (2023), Guest Artists Space (GAS) by the Yinka Shonibare Foundation, Nigeria (2022), ROSL and Art House Residency, UK (2022), and Cassirer Welz Award and Bag Factory Residency, South Africa (2021).
Nnorom's works are found in important private collections, museums, and institutions.
