Nnena Kalu

For this new commission, Nnena Kalu (b. 1966, Glasgow) will work in situ in the space creating new large–scale sculptural installations. By binding, layering and wrapping materials, Kalu explores space, scale and texture through repetitive and durational sculptural processes.

Her installations often begin with multiple small, compact ‘cocoons’ of textiles, thread and paper tightly packed in cellophane and tape. With an emphasis on colour and volume, these spheres of bound materials are collected together around constructed frameworks and existing structures.

By augmenting her work in response to the surrounding architecture, Kalu disorganises understandings of her sculptures as objects, structures or landscapes. Continuously in production, Kalu’s vigorous, sprawling aggregations of plastic tubing, newspaper, foam and twine form dense clusters and layers of material, both transforming and accentuating the formal qualities of these everyday items.

The artist’s sculptures reflect the duration, rhythm and process of their making. Kalu’s energetic installations become an extension of her physical movements, centering an important relationship between the artist’s body and her sculptural forms. This exhibition is an exciting opportunity for visitors to experience Kalu’s practice first hand as she works on site throughout the duration of the exhibition.

Kalu’s commission is the first in Studio Voltaire elsewhere, a unique series of ambitious offsite commissions for 2020. It is Kalu’s first major solo exhibition in a London institution and is the longest live installation she has worked on to date.

This commission is presented in partnership with ActionSpace and is supported by Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant and The Elephant Trust. With kind assistance by Cork Street Galleries.

Nnena Kalu (b. 1966, Glasgow) lives and works in London. Kalu is an important member of Studio Voltaire’s artistic community, and her work has previously been exhibited as part of group exhibitions in 2012 and 2015.

Recent exhibitions include: Nnena Kalu: Wrapping, Humber Street Gallery, Hull (2019); Tube Lines, Tate Exchange, Tate Modern, London (2019); Spectrum Arts Prize, Saatchi Gallery, London (2018); Glasgow International Art Fair, Project Ability, Glasgow (2018); Spring Syllabus, J Hammond Projects, London (2018); Watch This Space, Wandsworth Arts Fringe, London (2017); Radical Craft: Alternative Ways of Making, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester (2017); Capharnaum, Theatre de Liege, Le Madmusee, Liege (2016); Studio Voltaire Open, Selected by Cory Arcangel and Hanne Mugaas, Studio Voltaire, London (2015); Dizziness of Freedom, Bermondsey Project, London (2014); The Trouble with Painting Today, Pump House Gallery, London (2014); Epiphanies! Secrets of Outsider Art, St Pancras Hospital, London (2014); Side by Side, Southbank Centre, London (2013); SV12 Member’s Show, Selected by Jenni Lomax and Mike Nelson, Studio Voltaire, London (2012).