TRAVELER’S DIARY:Paris-Musée d’Art Moderne

One of the most compelling personal narratives the viewer encounters is that of the African artist Otobong Nkanga at the Musée d’Art Moderne, titled “I dreamt of you in colours”. Since the late 1990s, she has engaged with themes related to ecology and the relationships between the body and the land, creating striking works of art.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Efi Michalarou

Otobong Nkanga (born in Kano, Nigeria, in 1974 and now living in Antwerp, Belgium), through monumental installations, photographic series, recent works, and a large number of drawings—some dating back to the early years of her career and never before exhibited—assembles a personal puzzle of images and materials in an exhibition that offers a cross-section of her protean body of work, spanning from its beginnings to the present day.

She traces a genealogy of recurring themes (such as mineral extraction or the various uses and cultural values associated with natural resources) within a continuously evolving visual practice. To achieve this, she employs a wide range of materials and media, creating connections between forms, materials, and ideas. She reactivates earlier works, adding elements and recomposing them for this magical journey she offers the viewer, who, by following it through the exhibition’s evolutionary trajectory—truly a major exhibition, something that in Paris and its major museums has begun to fade—experiences a sense of spiritual elevation and a profound historical and cultural breath.

Photo: Otobong Nkanga, I dreamt of you in colours, Exhibition view, Musée d’Art Moderne-Paris, 2026, Photo: © & Courtesy Efi Michalarou