Nnenna Okore

Okore is a graduate of the University of Nsukka, Nigeria, where she studied with El Anatsui and was a contemporary of Marcia Kure. Her creative practices are hands-on, repetitive and laborious. In her work, Okore pursues and ethic of recycling and transformation, working with materials often gathered from the streets. By salvaging and hoarding waste materials like newsprint, Okore raises questions of consumption and waste, paying homage to her country's foragers and peddlers, while probing personal memories of childhood in Nigeria. She explores an aesthetic of accumulation, picking out materials that are closely related and serviceable, favoring the gutsy textures of jute, burlap, clay and handmade paper pulps. She is currently an Assistant Professor and Chair of the Art Department at North Park University in Chicago, IL. She has exhibited at the Museum of Art and Design in NYC, the Tang Museum at Skidmore, and participated in the 29th Sao Paulo Biennial, Brazil. She was the recipient of the Red Gate Residency in Beijing, 2006, and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture residency, 2007.