Paris-based Canadian artist Kapwani Kiwanga will represent Canada at the 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, which will happen from the 20th of April to the 24th of November, 2024.
Kapwani Kiwanga is known for her research-driven work which has been inspired by marginalised histories. Her singular approach and use of natural fibres, glass, ceramics and steel in her large-scale mixed-media works has been presented in a wide range of mediums including sculpture, installation, video, and performance.
Image courtesy of Ocula
Her works have been presented internationally in museums and galleries such as Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich; New Museum, New York (US); State of Concept, Athens; Moody Center for the Arts, Houston (US); Haus der Kunst, Munich (DE); Kunsthaus Pasquart, Biel/Bienne (Switzerland); MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge (US); Esker Foundation, Calgary (Canada); Power Plant, Toronto (Canada); Logan Center for the Arts Chicago; South London Gallery (London); and Jeu de Paume (Paris), amongst others.
Kiwanga has been a recipient of several awards over the last couple of years. She received the Sotheby Art Award (2018) in Canada, the Frieze Artist Award 2018 (US) and the Marcel Duchamp Prize (France) in 2020. In 2022, she won the Zurich Art Prize.
This year’s artist selection committee co-chairs, NGC’s Michelle LaVallee, Director of Indigenous Ways and Decolonisation, and Jonathan Shaughnessy, Director of Curatorial Initiatives, have noted:
Image Courtesy of Artsy
“Kiwanga’s interdisciplinary approach to art making has received international attention for its eye-opening investigations into the structures, systems, and narratives underlying today’s power asymmetries. The treatment of space for Kiwanga is an artistic gesture. Working across sculpture, mixed-media installation and performance, her projects often pay close attention to the sites in and on which they are exhibited.”
Gaëtane Verna, the Executive Director of Wexner Center for the Arts, who will be curating Kiwanga’s presentation at the 2024 Venice Biennale says:
“Kapwani Kiwanga delves into the archives of the world and conducts in-depth research that is woven elegantly throughout her artworks. She is interested in the role of art as a catalyst for revealing and addressing alternative and often silenced, marginalised socio-political narratives that are part of our shared histories. It is an honour for me to have been invited to curate the Canada Pavilion, in continuous conversation with Kiwanga, and I look forward to supporting her in every aspect of this momentous project in which she will undoubtedly transcend the materials that she will choose to use to transform our own understandings of the world.”
