Kapwani Kiwanga (b. 1978)

Kapwani Kiwanga was born in Hamilton, Ontario and grew up in Brantford, Ontario. She currently lives and works in Paris (FR). Kiwanga studied anthropology and comparative religion at McGill University (Montreal, CA). She has followed the program "La Seine" at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, and also works at Le Fresnoy (a French national center for contemporary art). She was artist in residence at the MU Foundation in Eindhoven (NL) and at the Box in Bourges (FR). Kiwanga's works have been already exhibited in Centre Georges Pompidou (FR),  the Glasgow Center of Contemporary Art (UK), the Museum of Modern art de Dublin (IE), the Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo de Almeria (ES), Salt Beyoglu in Istanbul (TK), the South London Gallery (UK), the Jeu de Paume in Paris (FR), the  Kassel Documentary Film Festival (DE), the Kaleidoscope Arena Rome (IT) and at Paris Photo (FR). Kiwanga has been nominated as commissioned artist by The Armory Show, where a solo show is devoted to her work in 2016. Twice nominated for BAFTA, her movies have been rewarded in several international festivals.

Kiwanga co-opts the canon; she turns systems of power back on themselves, in art and in parsing broader histories. In this manner Kiwanga has developed an aesthetic vocabulary that she described as “exit strategies,” works that invite one to see things from multiple perspectives so as to look differently at existing structures and find ways to navigate the future differently.

In 2018, Kiwanga received the Frieze Artist Award (USA) and was also the winner of the annual Sobey Art Award (CA). In 2020, she was awarded the Prix Marcel Duchamp, France’s top art prize.