Otobong Nkanga to Capture Life’s Rhythms at MoMA
Otobong Nkanga with textile in progress for Otobong Nkanga: Cadence. Courtesy the artist. © Otobong Nkanga. Photo: Wim van Dongen.
This fall, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) will host Antwerp-based Nigerian artist Otobong Nkanga‘s first solo presentation in New York.
Held in the 33-metre-tall Marron Atrium, Cadence (10 October 2024–8 June 2025) will present a site-specific installation of sculptures, text, and sound seeking to address ‘the rhythms of both ecological life cycles and social upheaval’.
Nkang is widely recognised for sculptures and installations that incorporate traces of the land, its people and raw materials. She made notable appearances at documenta 14 and the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019, where she won a Special Mention.
‘My works connect us to our shared histories, not just through land and geography, but through emotions shaped by events and encounters,’ Nkanga said in a statement.‘These are the cadences of life, formed by turbulence and hope.’
The centrepiece is a large-scale tapestry made of metallic, natural, and synthetic fibres, with imagery referencing ocean depths, ecologies, and galaxies.
In the West African context, Otobong told Ocula Magazine in 2018, she had always thought of textiles or tapestries as ‘a way of communicating a message’.
There will be hanging sculptures composed of dyed ropes interwoven with hand-blown glass and ceramic forms, ceramic tablets imprinted with the artist’s poems, and an immersive sound work. A live performance is scheduled for next spring.
‘Otobong Nkanga has changed the way we understand the Earth and our place in it,’ said curator Michelle Kuo.
‘Her art confronts both the beauty and the degradation of the natural world—and its upheaval in the wake of industrial revolutions, resource extraction, and war,’ she said.
The artist recently won the Nasher Prize for her substantial contributions to contemporary sculpture. She will receive the award at Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas in 2025, alongside an exhibition, a U.S. $100,000 cash prize, and a published monograph.
Nkanga joined Lisson Gallery in 2023. Her debut exhibition with the gallery, We Come From Fire and Return to Fire, is on view in London until 3 August 2024. —[O]
Main image: Otobong Nkanga with textile in progress for Otobong Nkanga: Cadence. Courtesy the artist. © Otobong Nkanga. Photo: Wim van Dongen.
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