Nnena Kalu

b. 1966

Nnena Kalu was born in Glasgow in 1966 and currently lives and works in London. She has been a resident artist at ActionSpace’s Studio Voltaire studio since 1999.

Working primarily across sculpture, installation and drawing, Kalu’s practice grapples with a unique fascination with and commitment to materiality and process. Her intensely layered, visually impactful artworks are composed of dense colours and compacted, flowing lines.

Kalu’s solo exhibitions include Glasgow International, Project Ability, ‘Wrapping’, Humber Street Gallery, Hull, and Studio Voltaire Elsewhere, Mayfair. Yinka Shonibare invited Kalu to create new work for the Royal Academy Summer Show and the artist was awarded a LOEWE FOUNDATION/Studio Voltaire studio award. Kalu presented an installation of drawing works for Deptford X and ‘Trickster Figures: Sculpture and the Body’, MK Gallery, 2023. Her works are housed in collections worldwide.