Okwui Okpokwasili. Performance view of Bronx Gothic. On the Boards, Seattle, Washington, 2016. Video by Peter Born. Courtesy of the artist
July 30 — August 28, 2022
The Museum of Modern Art
The first Studio artist-in-residence will be Okwui Okpokwasili (Igbo-Nigerian American, born 1972). Okpokwasili creates multidisciplinary performance pieces that seek to shape and amplify the shared psychic space the audience and performer inhabit, and, by centering the African/African American feminine, to illuminate universal human conditions. Her productions, created in collaboration with acclaimed designer Peter Born, are experimental in form, bringing together elements of dance, theater, and the visual arts.
Okpokwasili, a Brooklyn-based choreographer, performer, and writer, has stated, “I want to build full and rich characters with integrity, Brown bodies laboring within a very specific and charged context.” She explores the roles of African and African American women by creating multidisciplinary performance pieces that seek to shape the shared space inhabited by the audience and performer. Her productions, created in collaboration with acclaimed designer Peter Born, are experimental in form, bringing together elements of dance, theater, and the visual arts. At MoMA, Okpokwasili will expand on her previous research inspired by embodied anti-colonial protest techniques used by women in Southeastern Nigeria, exploring the possibilities of singing, movement, video, and text.
Studio Residency is organized by Ana Janevski, Curator, Department of Media and Performance.
The exhibition is presented as part of The Hyundai Card Performance Series.
Major support is provided by MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Director’s Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art.
Generous funding is provided by the Lonti Ebers Endowment for Performance and the Sarah Arison Endowment Fund for Performance.
Additional support for Studio Residency: Okwui Okpokwasili is provided by The Modern Women’s Fund.
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