Otobong Nkanga Wins Prestigious Nasher Prize

Otobong Nkanga has won the prestigious Nasher Prize for Sculpture.

Nigerian-born sculptor, Otobong Nkanga has emerged winner of the prestigious Nasher Prize for Sculpture, one of the world’s biggest art prizes.

The prize comes with whooping cash of $100,000 (N76million) and as the winner, Belgium-based Nkanga will become a laureate at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, where curators will assist in the development of public programs, an exhibition, and a published book.

Nkanga expressed her surprise at the important win, saying, “I wasn’t expecting this, but I am deeply honoured.”

Aside from the Nasher Prize, Nkanga made history in 2015 when she became the first African to receive the Yanghyun Prize. In 2019, she was awarded the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme, one of the world’s top art prizes for mid-career artists, together with a $100,000 cash prize.

Nkanga has taken part in a number of international exhibitions, including the Biennale de Lyon in 2015 and the Sao Paulo Biennale in 2014.

Her most recent solo exhibition in the United States took place in 2018 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where she displayed soap sculptures, large paintings, and woven tapestries.

Nkanga’s prominence in the art world extends to her inclusion in the 2022 Venice Biennale and Documenta. She has become a fixture on the European museum circuit, where she has been featured in six major exhibitions over the past two years, including an exhibition at the Castello di Rivoli, a contemporary art museum in Turin, Italy.

The sculptor was born in Kano, Nigeria, in 1974 and pursued her education at OAU, Nigeria, State, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam.

She also completed Advanced Studies in the Performing Arts at DasArts in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.