For Carved to Flow, created for Documenta 14 in 2017, Nkanga directed the creation of an ecosystem of exchange that resulted in bars of soap resembling blocks of marble from ingredients gathered from sites in Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. These soaps were processed in public workshop sessions in Athens, Greece—one of the sites of that year’s Documenta—then shipped to the main exhibition site in Kassel, Germany to be displayed, discussed, and sold by performers. The project has continued with The Carved to Flow Foundation, established in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, which funds two distinct initiatives: an organic farm outside of Akwa Ibom, and Akwa Ibom Athens, a nonprofit exhibition space. This complex “flow” of production and commerce echoed the properties of the soap itself—its mutability through changes of temperature and other environmental shifts.
Other seminal iterative works will be presented on occasion of Nkanga’s Nasher Prize exhibition, continuing the evolution of these site-responsive projects in a new region. Working in collaboration with local artisans to embed her works with traditions, materials, and techniques that are resonant to Dallas, Nkanga will explore new formal and conceptual presentations of ongoing series in the Nasher’s galleries.
Nkanga will engage with Texan history, material culture, ecology, and community through a process of deep research and an exchange of knowledge. The artist will, in particular, navigate histories and patterns of migration across North Texas, considering the area as a nexus of movements connecting disparate lands and cultures. Additionally, Nkanga will debut new works relating to her practice as a poet.
“Otobong Nkanga demonstrates profound reverence to the material matter of the land and our relationship to it,” says Interim Director and Chief Curator Jed Morse. “Her penetrating works stem from enormous compassion and curiosity and we are honored to have her consider North Texas in her exhibition at the Nasher, just as we honor her for the tremendous impact she had made on sculpture.”
As an additional part of the new Nasher Prize program, a publication focused on Otobong Nkanga’s recurring projects will be published in late Summer 2025, including documentation of her work at the Nasher and new scholarship on the artist and her practice.
The Nasher Sculpture Center announced Otobong Nkanga as the recipient of the 2025 Nasher Prize in the fall of 2023 under a new biennial format. Since its inauguration in 2015, the prize has been given annually to recognize a living artist whose work has made a profound impact on the field of sculpture. The change in format gives the museum and the laureate time to plan an exhibition at the Nasher, produce a printed monograph, and better communicate their important contribution to sculpture.
Nkanga is the eighth artist to receive the Nasher Prize and the first to be celebrated on the biennial cycle; previous winners are Senga Nengudi (2023), Nairy Baghramian (2022), Michael Rakowitz (2020-21), Isa Genzken (2019), Theaster Gates (2018), Pierre Huyghe (2017) and Doris Salcedo (2016). The 2025 Nasher Prize jury that selected Nkanga is comprised of Nairy Baghramian, artist; Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Director of Castello di Rivoli, Italy; Lynne Cooke, Senior Curator, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Briony Fer, Professor, History of Art, University College London; Hou Hanru, Artistic Director, MAXXI, Rome; Yuko Hasegawa, Director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa Japan; Rashid Johnson, artist; Pablo León de la Barra, Curator at Large, Latin America, Guggenheim Museum; and Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair, Arts Council England.
In conjunction with the Nasher Prize, the Nasher Sculpture Center presents a series of public programs exploring the climate of contemporary sculpture. Called Nasher Prize Dialogues, the talks gather interdisciplinary luminaries to discuss the most compelling topics regarding contemporary sculpture. By galvanizing international discourse, Nasher Prize Dialogues are an apt extension of the Nasher Prize’s mission to advocate for and advance a vital contemporary art form. Recent talks have taken place in Copenhagen, Denmark in partnership with CHART; Reykjavik, Iceland in partnership with the Reykjavik Art Museum; and in Glasgow, UK in partnership with The Common Guild and Glasgow International 2018; Mexico City in partnership with Museo Jumex; San Juan, Puerto Rico in partnership with Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico; and in Ghent, Belgium in partnership with S.M.A.K.
The exhibition is made possible, in part, by awards from the Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture.