Otobong Nkanga – 2025 Nasher Prize Laureate

19 May 2025

Between announcing artist Otobong Nkanga as the 2025 Nasher Prize Laureate in the fall of 2023 and her award ceremony is the spring of 2025, the Nasher Sculpture Center interviewed Nasher Prize jurors about the importance of Nkanga’s work, filmed the preparation and installation for exhibitions in Dallas and New York, and, for the first time, shared footage from her farm in Nigeria, funded by her ongoing project 'Carved to Flow.'

The work of 2025 Nasher Prize Laureate Otobong Nkanga (b. 1974) reconsiders our relationship with the land and the materials extracted from it, engaging a dynamic and deeply considered range of materials within an equally diverse practice. In 'Each Seed a Body,' Nkanga engages with Texan history, material culture, ecology, and community through a process of deep research and an exchange of knowledge. The artist navigates histories and patterns of migration across North Texas, considering the area as a nexus of movements connecting disparate lands and cultures. Additionally, Nkanga debuts new works relating to her practice as a poet.

Watch video via Nasher Sculpture Center.

Shown here: Videography by Quin Mathews, Courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center