Ima-Abasi Okon
Lives and works in London and Amsterdam
Contact
studio@imaokon.co.uk
Work
Full portfolio available upon request
Current / Forthcoming
— Air de repos (Breathwork), Capc Musee d'art Contemporain, Bordeux, FR
— Florence Jung, Foundation Pernod Ricard (in dialogue)
— Insight, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, DE
— (Solo) Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, NL
Solo & Two Person Exhibitions
2022 Vasseur Baltic Artist Award 2022, Gateshead, UK
2021 Spotlights, Tate Britain, London, UK
2020 sur— [infinite Slippage: production of the r ~e ~a ~l as an intensive magnitude starting at zero-eight] —plus, Void, Derry - Londonderry,
2020 Technical - Adjacent, Turf Projects, London, UK w/ Taylor Le Melle
2019 Infinite Slippage: nonRepugnant Insolvencies T!-a!-r!-r!-y!-i!-n!-g! as Handclaps of M's Hard'Loved'Flesh [I’M irreducibly undone because] —Leanage-Complex-Dub,Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK
2018 sur— [MIX-USE COMMODITY] —plus, two person show with Alessandro Raho, Kingsgate Project Space, London, UK
2018 Parables for the BLAZER: Mahalia's EXISTENCEandEXISTENTS-HyPE Fragrant Stacking Balm (306.HAL), Plaza Plaza, London, UK
2014 The Fountains Are Decorative and Are Not Water Play Areas, Supercollider Contemporary Arts Project, Blackpool, UK
Selected Group Exhibtion2023
2023 Window Grey, CAN Centre d'art Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel CH
2023 Housing, Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam, NL
2022 Love's Work, Galerie Molitor, Berlin, DE
2022 A Lasting Truth is Change,Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, NL
2022 Information (Today), Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, NO
2021 New Museum Triennial, New York, USA
2021 Untitled, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, UK
2021 Information (Today), Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
2021 Wild Frictions: The Politics and Poetics of Interruption, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, USA
2020 Taylor Le Melle, Text Exercises, organised with Richard Birkett, Felix Gaudlitz, Vienna, Austria
2020 The Unknown Dimension, Essex Street, NYC, USA
2020 The Art of Critique: Image Power, Frans Hal Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands
2020 The Same Room: Julie Becker in Dialogue, Galerie Neu, Berlin, Germany
2019 Open Studio 2019, Rijksakademie Akademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2019 The Weather Garden, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, UK, group show curated by Anne Hardy
2018 Concrete Poetries, Lower Green, Norwich, UK
2018 Canine Wisdom For the Barking Dog - The Dog Gone Deaf, 13th Dak'Art Biennale, Dakar, Senegal w/ Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom
2018 there's something in the conversation that's more interesting than the finality of (a title), The Showroom, London, UK
2018 PRAISE N PAY IT/ PULL UP, COME INTO THE RISE, South London Gallery, London, UK
2017 No Place to Spit, Set Space, London, UK
2017 UNTITLED: Art on the Conditions of Our Time, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK
2016 Members' Show, Outpost, Norwich, UK
2016 In This Soup We Swim, Kingsgate Project Space. London, UK
2016 Changing City; Shifting Places, CCA Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
2014 Arena, Center of Contemporary Art, Torun, Poland
2014 Onsite, TAP, Southend, UK
2014 Eckersley, Upper Street Gallery, London College of Communication, London, UK
2013 EINDE, Lokaal 01, The Netherlands
2012 London Art Book Fair, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
2012 Kaleid 2012 London, UK, Art Academy, London
2011 Video Network Symposium, Goethe Institute, Lagos, Nigeria
2010 Pleasure Ground 1-4, Lokaal 01, Breda, The Netherlands
Screenings
2019 Artists' Moving Image Festival, Co-Programmed with Emmie McLuskey and Kimberly O'Neill, LUX Scotland,
2019 Fuel + Property, online broadcast, curated by Taylor Le Melle,Wysing Arts Centre,
2019 Refusal, Resistance and Rest, ICA Miami, USA
2018 Triangle Network, Njelele Art Station, Harare, Zimbabwe
2016 Pluriversale, Akadmie Der Kunst Der Welt, Cologne, Germany
2016 Mount Florida Screenings, Mount Florida Studios, Glasgow, UK
2016 Peer Forum, Cubitt Gallery, London, UK
2015 Videonale 15., Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany
2015 Atomic Pictures, Paris, France
2014 Motion, Time, Space, Center for Interdisciplinary Arts, Kala Bhavana, India
2014 Video Art Network, Lagos, Nigeria
2011 Video Network Symposium, Goethe Institute, Lagos Nigeria
Performances
2017 'I'm Gonna Love You A Little M-O-R-E Baby', w/ Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, V22 Summer Club, London, UK
2017 'I'm Gonna Love You A Little M-O-R-E Baby', w/ Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, Five Years, London, UK
2017 Sounding In, Sounding Out, w/ Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, Spike Island, Bristol, UK
Fellowships / Residencies
2022 Studio & Research Residency, Amant, Siena, Italy
2019 Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2018 Gasworks’ International Fellowship Programme, Njelele, Harare, Zimbabwe
2018 Coleção Moraes-Barbosa, São Paulo, Brazil
2018 Hospitalfield, Scotland, UK
2017 Villa Lena Art Foundation, Tuscany, Italy
2017 Holding Space, The Showroom, London, UK
2014 Supercollider Contemporary Arts, Blackpool, UK
2013 Royal Academy Schools, London, UK
2013 Lokaal 01,Breda, The Netherlands
Awards
2021 {shortlisted} Zurich Art Prize 2020
2020 Henry Moore Award
2020 Turner Prize Bursary
2020 The Arts Foundation Fellow
2019 The Arts Foundation Futures Awards
2018 Nigel Greenwood Research Prize
2016 LCC / UAL Research Development Fund
2014 LCC / UAL Research Development Fund
2013 LCC / UAL Research Development Fund
2012 ACE Artist International Development Fund
Interviews / Press / Publications / Writing
Ima-Abasi Okon Distrurbs the Myth of the Artist, Eva Kenny, Frieze, No. 214, October 2020
Pofile: Ima-Abasi Okon, Yolande van der Heide, Metropolism M, NR 05 2020
The Art Edition, ES Magazine, 02.10.2020
Home in the Street, Alone in the Sheets, Bianca Heusre, Spike Art Magazine, #63 Spring 2020
Transactional Objects Full of Contexts in Voided Sites, Cedriq Fauq, Mousse 71, Spring 2020
Spotlight: Ima-Abasi Okon in Conversation with Taylor Le Melle, Taylor Le Melle, Cura. 33, March 2020
Urban Realities: 'The Same Room' at Galerie Neu, Hannah Carroll Harris, Berlin Art Link, 06 March 2020
HOME TACTICS FOR FACING SOCIAL DEATH, Yolande van der Heide in Conversation with Ima-Abasi Okon and Christian Nyampeta, Yolande van der Heide, Commisssiond Critique, January 2020
Hanging Out: Artist Moving Image Festival atTramway Glasgow, Cicely Farrer, MAP Magazine, Issue 54 '... Beneath High Libra', December 2019
Ocula Conversation with Tendai John Matambu, Tendai John Matambu, Ocula Magazine July 2019
Profile: Ima-Abasi Okon, Maria Walsh, Art Monthly, July/August 2019
Capture Mechanism for Enthusiam, Frieze 200, January - February 2019
Curating for the Age of Blackness, Cedriq Fauq, Mousse 66, January 2019
Artreview announces Nigel Greenwood Prize, 2017
The North, i-D online, 9 November 2017
W/ Independant curator Hansi Momodu-Gordon, 2017
UNTITLED: Art On the Conditions of Our Time, 2017 (from 13:00)
Arena, Center of Contemporary Art, ISBN 978-83-62881-43-7
Oomk ISSUE 4: The Internet, 2015
W/ Director of CSW Torun Dobrila Denegri, 2014
The Fountains Are Decorative and Are Not Water Play Areas, 2014
Once More Onto the Breach Dear Friends, Lokaal 01 ISBN 9789081 195485
Pleasure Ground, Lokaal 01, ISBN 978 -90-811954-7-8 0
Graduate Showcase, Creative Review, 2008, ISBN 9 770262 103092 09
Teaching Posts
2022 De Ateliers, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Zurich University of the Arts, CH
2021 Northwestern University, Chicago, USA; Dutch Art Institue (DAI Roaming Academy, Roaming Academy)
2020 Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK; Golsdsmiths University of London, UK; Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2015 - 2019 1st Year Leader (Senior Lecturer) BA Illustration and Visual Media,
London College of Communication, UAL, UK
2008 - 2015 Various full & part-time posts across Foundation, BA and MA at Central Saint Martins, London College of Communication and Winchester College of Art
MISC
PressforPractice