Sikkens Prize 2026 for Otobong Nkanga
The Sikkens Prize honours an artist or collective who is pioneering in the field of colour. The prize is awarded to Otobong Nkanga because, in a time that calls for both imagination and responsibility, she shows that the power of colour begins where it awakens – in the earth, in the community, in life itself.
The artist receives a sum of €75,000. She will also be honoured with the exhibition Humus Blues at Singer Laren, opening immediately after the award ceremony and on view for four months.
The Sikkens Prize honours an artist or collective who is pioneering in the field of colour. The prize is awarded to Otobong Nkanga because, in a time that calls for both imagination and responsibility, she shows that the power of colour begins where it awakens – in the earth, in the community, in life itself. The artist receives a sum of €75,000. She will also be honoured with the exhibition Humus Blues at Singer Laren, opening immediately after the award ceremony and on view for four months.
Otobong Nkanga has had solo exhibitions at institutions including Mam in Paris and MCBA Lausanne (exhibition I dreamt of you in colours), Kunsthaus Bregenz, Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp and MoMA in New York. Nkanga has also participated in major international exhibitions, including the Biennale Arte 2026 in Venice, documenta 14 in Kassel and the Sydney Biennial. She has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Sharjah Biennial 14 Prize (2019) and the 2025 Nasher Sculpture Prize.
The Sikkens Prize comes with a prize of €75,000, of which €50,000 is intended for personal development and €25,000 for a special project involving colour. Otobong Nkanga will dedicate her prize money to a project of her Carved to Flow Foundation in Nigeria.
For the first time, the Sikkens Foundation honours the Sikkens Prize laureate with an exhibition. Otobong Nkanga’s solo exhibition Humus Blues is on view from 27 October 2026 to 28 February 2027 at Singer Laren. In her work she explores the interconnection between people, landscape and raw materials, as well as themes such as identity, power and change. Featuring sculptures, textiles, drawings, paintings, photographs and poetry, the exhibition offers a multifaceted introduction to her body of work, in which colour plays a key role – a quality for which the Sikkens Prize jury has recognised her. Monumental works by Nkanga will also be on display in the 30-year anniversary exhibition ReflAction at the Art Space of the AkzoNobel Art Foundation in Amsterdam.
Main Image: Otobong Nkanga Copyright Wim Van Dongen