Expressing her astonishment at the significant win, Nkanga stated, “I wasn’t expecting this, but I am deeply honoured.” This prize is more than a $100,000 award and as a winner, Nkanga becomes a laureate at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, where curators help devise public programming, an exhibition and a published monograph.
According to Jeremy Strick, director of the Nasher Sculpture Center, Nkanga was the only one selected for this award out of over 160 nominees. Commending Nkanga’s work, Strick said, “The work of Otobong Nkanga makes manifest the myriad connections — historical, sociological, economic, cultural and spiritual — that we have to the materials that comprise our lives.”
Apart from her recent Nasher Prize, Nkanga achieved a significant milestone in 2015 when she became the first African to win the Yanghyun Prize. In 2019, she received another prestigious award, the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme, one of the world’s largest art prizes for mid-career artists, accompanied by a $100,000 cash prize.
