DALLAS, Texas (May 30, 2024) – The Nasher Sculpture Center announces ‘Nasher Prize Dialogues: Sculpture and Organic Material’ presented in partnership with the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (S.M.A.K.) in Ghent, Belgium. The conversation will take place at S.M.A.K. on June 19, 2024, at 7 p.m.
This program brings together 2025 Nasher Prize laureate Otobong Nkanga and artist Precious Okoyomon to discuss their use of organic matter in sculptures and installations, often creating sensory worlds inside of museums and galleries. Through a shared use of plants, herbs, stones, and other raw materials, the artists’ two distinct practices manifest in spaces that envelope their audiences beyond visual planes, pushing the multi-dimensional qualities of sculpture. The conversation will be moderated by independent curator Fabian Flückiger.
The discussion is part of Nasher Prize Dialogues, the discursive platform of the Nasher Prize, the international prize for a living artist in recognition of a body of work that has had an extraordinary impact on the understanding of sculpture. Dialogues is intended to foster international awareness of sculpture and to stimulate discussion and debate. Programs—including panel discussions, lectures, and symposia—are held in cities around the world on a yearly basis, offering engagement with various audiences and providing myriad perspectives and insight into the ever-expanding field of sculpture.
Previous Nasher Prize Dialogues programs have occurred in partnership with the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico; New Museum, New York, NY; CHART, Copenhagen, Denmark; Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland; The Common Guild, Glasgow, UK; Sixth Floor Museum, Dallas, TX; Museo Jumex, Mexico City, MX; Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany; and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, in partnership with the Henry Moore Foundation, and included artists such as Nina Baier, Martin Boyce, and Michael Elmgreen; Theaster Gates and Ragnar Kjartansson; Jacolby Satterwhite and Mika Rottenberg; Pedro Reyes, Amalia Pica, Damian Ortega, and Sanford Biggers; Alfredo Jaar, Jill Magid, lauren woods, and Paul Ramirez Jonas; Michael Dean, Phyllida Barlow, and Eva Rothschild, among others.
For the ‘Nasher Prize Dialogues: Sculpture and Organic Material’ press kit, please click this link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/gorp8opvm1evlgzehlpwb/AJy4IegrHE_c2dwrS5KT14U?rlkey=clnilyl67bpvu9bmey0rfs03m&st=twhho2cm&dl=0
Press Contact
Julia Debski
Sutton Communications
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About Otobong Nkanga
Otobong Nkanga (born 1974, Kano, Nigeria) lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. She studied at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife-Ife, Nigeria; the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and did her masters in the Performing Arts at DasArts, Advanced Research in Theatre and Dance studies in Amsterdam. Nkanga has been an artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam in 2002-04, DAAD Berlin programme in 2013-14 and at the Martin Gropius – Bau in 2019.
Her most recent solo exhibitions include: IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia, Spain (2023); Sint-Janshospitaal, Bruges, Belgium (2022); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2021); Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy (2021-2022); Villa Arson, Nice, France (2021); Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway (2020-2021); Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany (2020); MIMA, Middlesbrough, UK (2020); Tate St Ives, UK (2019); Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa (2019); Ar/ge kunst Galleria Museo, Bolzano, Italy (2018); MCA Chicago, US (2018); Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark (2017); Nottingham Contemporary, UK (2016); Beirut Art Center, Lebanon (2016); Tate Modern, London, UK (2015); Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany (2015); Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, The Netherlands (2015); Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany (2015), Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium (2015); Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France (2015).
Her participation in international group shows includes: ‘THE MIND’S EYE. Images of Nature from Claude Monet to Otobong Nkanga’, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, Switzerland (2023); ‘Dear Earth - Art and Hope in a Time of Crisis’, Hayward Gallery, London, UK (2023); ‘Busan Biennial 2022 - We, on the Rising Wave’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Busan, South Korea (2022); ‘KUB In Venice’, Scuola di San Pasquale, Venice, Italy (2022); ‘Black Melancholia’, Hessel Museum of Art, New York, USA (2022); ‘Currency: Photography Beyond Capture, 8th Triennial of Photography Hamburg’, Hamburg, Germany (2022); ‘We Are History’, Somerset House, London, UK (2021); ‘Witch Hunt’, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA (2021); ‘Global(e) Resistance’, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2020); ‘Our World is Burning’, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2020); ‘Seismic Movements’, Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh (2020); ‘58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia’, Venice, Italy (2019); ‘Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber’, Sharjah, UAE (2019); ‘Artes Mundi 2018’, National Museum Cardiff, UK (2018); ‘Cosmogonies, according to the elements’, MAMAC, Nice, France (2018); ‘General Rehearsal’, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Russia (2018); ‘Documenta 14’, Athens, Greece (2017); ‘I am a native foreigner’, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2017); ‘Take Me (I’m Yours)’, Pirelli Hangarbicocca, Milan, Italy (2017); ‘Dialogues, Manifesta – The European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2017); ‘Life Itself, Moderna Museet’, Stockholm, Sweden (2016); ‘Museum on/off’, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2016); ‘13th Biennale de Lyon, La vie moderne’, Lyon, France (2015); ‘Africa Remix’, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa, Mori Art Museum,Tokyo, Japan, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, Hayward Gallery, London, UK, and Museum Kunstplast, Düsseldorf, Germany (2004-2007). Nkanga was given the Special Mention Award at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Italy, 2019 and won the 2017 Belgium Art Prize. Other notable awards include the Peter-Weiss-Preis, Sharjah Biennial Prize, the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award, the Flemish Cultural Award for Visual Arts - Ultima and the Yanghyun Prize.
About Precious Okoyomon
Precious Okoyomon (born in London, based in New York City) is a Nigerian-American artist and poet whose multidisciplinary practice investigates the racialization of the natural world, intimacy and ideas and experiences of life, death and time. Their installations, sculptures, performances and poetry often draw from their family history and encounters with queerness. They created a vast installation at Aspen Art Museum in 2021, reimagining the museum’s rooftop with each passing season as part of an ongoing investigation into how the miracles and terrors of our natural world have been indexed into racialized categories. They have had solo exhibitions at the Luma Westbau in Zurich (2018), the Museum fu¨r Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt (2020), Performance Space New York (2021), Sant'Andrea de Scaphis in Rome (2023), and most recently at Fundacio´n Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Madrid (2024). Their second book But Did You Die? (2024) explores the complexities of their identity as a black queer immigrant. Okoyomon was a 2020 artist-in-residence at the LUMA Arles, and they are a recipient of the Frieze Artist Award (2021) and the Chanel Next Prize (2021). Their work is included in “Nigeria Imaginary,” a group exhibition representing the Nigerian pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
About Fabian Flückiger
Fabian Flückiger (born 1987, Berne, Switzerland) lives and works in Berne and Brussels. After holding various institutional positions (Zentrum Paul Klee, Berne; Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva; Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen; Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein), he has been working as a freelance curator since 2021. He has organized exhibitions and publications on Nora Turato (2019), Steven Parrino (2020), Miriam Laura Leonardi (2021), Manon de Boer (2022), ektor garcia (2022) and Fatima Moallim (2023), among others. Most recently, he collaborated with Belgian institutional collections for the major thematic exhibition "This Is Us" at Z33 in Hasselt, which also included commissioned works (2023). He was a guest critic at the ISCP in New York and taught at the F+F School of Art and Design in Zurich and at the école de recherche graphique (ERG) in Brussels. He is currently working on exhibition projects for Kunstforum Baloise, Basel, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Marietta Clages, Cologne, and Simian, Copenhagen. He is a jury member of the Swiss Art Awards.
About the Nasher Sculpture Center
Located in the heart of the Dallas Arts District, the Nasher Sculpture Center is home to the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary sculpture in the world, featuring more than 500 masterpieces by Brancusi, Calder, de Kooning, di Suvero, Giacometti, Basquiat, Hepworth, LeWitt, Matisse, Miró, Moore, Picasso, Rodin, Serra, and Shapiro, among others. The Nasher Sculpture Center is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for children 12 and under and members, and includes access to special exhibitions. For more information, visit www.NasherSculptureCenter.org.
About the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (S.M.A.K.)
S.M.A.K. shows art from its own collection in dialogue with works of contemporary artists from all corners of the world. By means of contemporary art, they seek and give meaning to this complex and fragmented world. In doing so, they make every effort to be accessible and inclusive, because art is for everyone. Because they experiment, every visit becomes exciting.