A book got made!! The artist publication "The Past is a Path" makes extensive use of archival documents to develop a fictional conversation that loosely highlights the events that led to Cameroon becoming a German colony and, the execution of Rudolf Duala Manga Bell. The conversation was inspired by the political, economic, and cultural disparities faced by people who have roots in colonized countries.
You can get copies here
No Place Like Home
Group exhibition at ARKO Art Center Gallery 1, 2, Seoul from November 21 - December 1, 2024
No Place Like Home highlights the works and activities of foreign artists who are temporarily traveling or residing in Korea, offering insights into the contemporary artworld and networks today.
Artists: Aracha Cholitgul, Emmy Skensved, Florian Bong-kil Grosse, Karo Akpokiere, Naresh Kumar, Salty Xi Jie Ng, Silas Fong
Hosted by Arts Council Korea
I’m participating in the exhibition INDUSTRY from 12 to 22 September 2024 at Uferstudios / Uferhallen, Berlin. Organised by the Neue Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k), the exhibition is part of Berlin Art Week.
INDUSTRY refers to the former “Boulevard Badstraße” amusement mile in Wedding and takes a humorous look at the past and possible futures of the location. For more information click here
I'm one of the artists involved in the Democracy Poster Project. Initiated by the soon-to-be-opened (2024) National Museum for Democracy and Human Rights, Namyeongdong, Seoul.
The project required artists to "look at global incidents and issues against state violence, anti-democracy, and human rights violations and visualize them in their own language." The outcome of the project informed the publication "Seed Pods of Democracy" and, will lead to exhibitions at the museum.
New Nigeria reinterprets the Nigerian flag, which shares formal similarities with the Canadian flag, to comment on migration and brain drain.
What identities are formed when we move, and how do they serve as a commentary on the fragility of the concept of nations and national identity?
To find out more about the project, click - https://bit.ly/NigeriaNeu and here
What identities are formed when we move, and how do they serve as a commentary on the fragility of the concept of nations and national identity?
To find out more about the project, click - https://bit.ly/NigeriaNeu and here
Coming of Age
Group exhibition at ICAT, HFBK, Hamburg from 14 December 2023 to 21 January 2024.
Coming of Age brings together eight artistic positions that deal with spaces and processes of search, change, and failure. Turning away from linear logic, the multimedia sculptures, paintings, drawings, photographs, and videos in their individual approaches often testify to moments of universality.
Artists: Karo Akpokiere, Keren Cytter, Tobias Zielony, Simon Fujiwara, Vicente Hirmas, Saray Purto Hoffmann, Richard Magee, Karla Zipfel. More information here
You can find photos from my solo exhibition An Alternative History of Symbols and Their Meaning here . All photos by Henning Rogge.
From 7 September to 15 October 2023, I will present the first part of my project, An Alternative History of Symbols and their Meaning, at Galerie Melike Bilir, Hamburg. The solo exhibition consists of eleven (11) enamel shields forged in Rohrbach, Bavaria, and a poster edition.
Drawing created for Foreign Policy Magazine's article on "The Word That Captures Nigerians’ Feelings About the Future". The Drawing was made for the magazine's digital Decoder series and for its fall 2023 print issue. You can read the article here
I received an art scholarship from "Die ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius". With the scholarship, I will further develop my project "An Alternative History of Symbols and their Meaning". The project involves reimagining the coat of arms of federal states, cities, towns, and villages in Germany... It's about appropriation and the role of fiction in shaping contemporary realities. More details later in the year!
The art scholarship is a joint initiative of the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius and the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media. It is awarded annually to seven visual artists or collectives. For more information, click here
Textile now – each thread tells a story.
Group Exhibition at the Textiel Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands from 10 June 2023 till 1 October 2023.
"From art fairs to museum exhibitions; textiles are more popular than ever. Artists from all over the world come to the TextielLab, the TextielMuseum’s professional workshop, to research and experiment. Textile now displays previously unseen work by both well-known names and young talent. They use the unique expressiveness of textiles to draw attention to current themes like identity, diversity, sexuality, gender, environment, and decolonisation, and sometimes actively involve you as an audience.
The exhibition features work from: melanie bonajo and Théo Demans , Afra Eisma, Ada M. Patterson, Otobong Nkanga, Karo Akpokiere, patricia kaersenhout and rolando vázquez, Geo Wyex, Alydia Wever and Ryan Oduber, Raquel van Haver and Bindweefsel." More information here
I'm collaborating with Medium Tings, Brooklyn to release two wallpapers! For more information click here - https://lnkd.in/e535dA_J
Medium Tings Wallpapers are one-of-a-kind collaborations with artists exploring the intersection of art and design. Karo Akpokiere’s work straddles the line between fine art and graphic design and in doing so, questions the traditional hierarchies that exist between both disciplines.
"Growing up in Lagos, graphic design, textiles, and pattern design, presented through print and electronic media, played a significant role in the formation of my visual identity. The mix of T-shirt graphics, sneakers, advertising, streetwear, and comic books available locally and from different parts of the world gave me a feeling for form, composition, color, and made me sensitive to how messages and stories can be shared in ways that are accessible, ways that are as direct as they are subtle, ways that are solely aesthetic."
These designs express a rhythmic and intuitive approach to making, which is at the heart of Akpokiere’s practice. "These wallpapers are a celebration of the beauty and joy of making, of the manipulation of lines with no end in mind, of connecting with place and interests, of taking a walk in the dark and feeling your way through to textured surfaces bound by lines and color."
Medium Tings Wallpapers are one-of-a-kind collaborations with artists exploring the intersection of art and design. Karo Akpokiere’s work straddles the line between fine art and graphic design and in doing so, questions the traditional hierarchies that exist between both disciplines.
"Growing up in Lagos, graphic design, textiles, and pattern design, presented through print and electronic media, played a significant role in the formation of my visual identity. The mix of T-shirt graphics, sneakers, advertising, streetwear, and comic books available locally and from different parts of the world gave me a feeling for form, composition, color, and made me sensitive to how messages and stories can be shared in ways that are accessible, ways that are as direct as they are subtle, ways that are solely aesthetic."
These designs express a rhythmic and intuitive approach to making, which is at the heart of Akpokiere’s practice. "These wallpapers are a celebration of the beauty and joy of making, of the manipulation of lines with no end in mind, of connecting with place and interests, of taking a walk in the dark and feeling your way through to textured surfaces bound by lines and color."
I'm showing new work at the exhibition "The Fog of War" at the Goethe-Zentrum, Baku, Azerbaijan. The exhibition will travel to Georgia, Armenia. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Germany in 2023.
"The exhibition The Fog of War is organized by Goethe-Zentrum Baku, co-funded by European Union Delegation, supported by Kapellhaus and coordinated by PlatformArt. The project brings together artists from Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Norway, as well as from Germany in an exhibition that allows very subjective approaches to the tragedy of war. It is less about documentary strategies than about insights into the human condition itself, i. e. the “treasure of souls that was extorted from so many” as Andreas Gryphius laments in his sonnet “Tears of the Fatherland” in the middle of the Thirty Years’ War"
"The exhibition The Fog of War is organized by Goethe-Zentrum Baku, co-funded by European Union Delegation, supported by Kapellhaus and coordinated by PlatformArt. The project brings together artists from Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Norway, as well as from Germany in an exhibition that allows very subjective approaches to the tragedy of war. It is less about documentary strategies than about insights into the human condition itself, i. e. the “treasure of souls that was extorted from so many” as Andreas Gryphius laments in his sonnet “Tears of the Fatherland” in the middle of the Thirty Years’ War"
I made some drawings for Yemisí Aríbisálà's story "Birth: A Story of Secrets". The story is a recent addition to Wepresent's Literally Series. You can view the drawings and, read or listen to the story by clicking here
I contributed an essay to the new book "Graphic Design is not Innocent" by Professor Ingo Offermanns. "The publication aims to initiate a dialogue between designers, scholars, critics, and commissioners, who investigate responsibilities, potentials, politics, limits, and risks of designing visual communication". For more information and to buy a copy, click here
Glad to be nominated for the 2022 Paula Modersohn - Becker Kunstpreis. The exhibition runs from 26. November to 5. March 2023. More details here
I will exhibit a tapestry at the 17th Tapestry Triennale, Central Museum of Textiles, Łódź, Poland from 8. October to 15. April 2023. More information here.
Moncler's 70th anniversary website features my collaboration with the company. You view the website here
Lost Drawings project at MMCA (National Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art) Residency Changdong, Seoul from the 3rd of March, 2022.
I'm currently developing my first woven tapestries at the TextielLab, Textiel Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands. The tapestries will be completed in January 2022.
I have been awarded the 2021 Lichtwark-Förderpreis by the city of Hamburg, Germany alongside the artist Julia Phillips. For more information, click here.
Die Vergangenheit ist ein Weg (The Past is a Path) 2020, is a drawing project I made for MARKK Museum, Hamburg's exhibition - "Hey Hamburg, kennst du Duala Manga Bell?". For more details, please click here
I collaborated with Moncler for their '2 Moncler 1952' F/W 2021/2022 men collection. For more images, click here
'Anointed Cutz' (image above) is part of the exhibition 'Textures: History and Art of Black Hair' at the Kent State University Museum, Ohio. For more information, click here
Political Affairs - Language Is Not Innocent. Kunstverein in Hamburg. 2019
Flow of Forms, Forms of Flow. Design Histories between Africa and Europe. MARKK Museum, Hamburg. 2018
The Ministry of Culture and Banco do Brasil, with the support of BBDTVM, present Ex Africa, the largest and most important exhibition of contemporary African art held in Brazil. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/ex-africa-ccbb-bh/1QXhIaaW09YFLA?hl=en
I was invited to participate in the 56th Venice Biennale.'s main exhibition. I made Zwischen Lagos und Berlin for this one!
From March 2015, a major exhibition by the Vitra Design Museum sheds new light on contemporary African design. Showcasing the work of over 120 artists and designers, »Making Africa – A Continent of Contemporary Design« illustrates how design accompanies and fuels economic and political changes on the continent.