PHILIP AGUIRRE Y OTEGUI AND OTOBONG NKANGA

Philip Aguirre y Otegui is a Belgian artist graduated from the Royal Academy of Antwerp. It uses a wide range of materials for his sculptures and installations: clay, clay, bronze and iron, he also works on drawing, printmaking and photography. His work is a constant exploration of the human capacity to survive, and stories that are related to this subject. There is a social and political consciousness that lies behind the pure form of his sculptures, which are often presented in public spaces. Philip Aguirre has its own name for its visual narrative on human beings. He called it “the poetry of image.” In 2008, he had a major retrospective at Antwerp Middleheimmuseum. In 2009 he built the monumental sculpture “Gaalgui in Senegal, a sculpture that was presented to Beaufort Triennale in 2009. Aguirre is also a professor of art at the Academy of Art in Ghent. His work is included in several international collections. He lives and works in Antwerp.

Otobong Nkanga born in Nigeria, began his art studies at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife, Nigeria and continued at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris. She was in the residency program at the Rijksakademie beeldende van Kunsten, Amsterdam. Since 2001 she has exhibited widely throughout the world in solo and group exhibitions, most recently with “a delicate touch,” which was presented at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York and Pointe – Noire, Congo. Otobong Nkanga works in a wide range of media, performance, video, photography, drawing, embroidery and engraving. Nkanga, who lives and works in Antwerp inspired by the architecture – the special power and energy that the spaces around us possess. How a place and its history affects us there? His works are often moving and shown in different contexts.