Samuel Nnorom

Samuel Nnorom Portrait, Image courtesy of the artist and Pearl Lam Galleries

Samuel Nnorom

Biography

Samuel Nnorom (b. 1990, Abia, Nigeria) discovered his artistic talent at the age of 9 while assisting his father at his shoe workshop. He started drawing customers who visited the shop while also being influenced by his mother’s tailoring workshop. From 2001 to 2008, he received art training at Johnny Art Production Studio, Jos, Nigeria. In 2018, he graduated from the University of Nigeria with a Master of Fine Arts (Sculpture). He belongs to the New Nsukka school of art.

Nnorom’s body of work is typically constructed from pieces of Ankara/African wax print fabric scraps collected from tailors or cast-off clothing from homes, along with discarded foam from furniture workshops that are wrapped and stitched into bubbles of various colours and sizes. Through actions like sewing, rolling, tying, stringing, and suspending, he poetically navigates the boundaries between textile, painting, and sculpture.

Nnorom’s works has been recognised through various selected awards. He was the co-winner of the Ettore e Ines Fico Prize at Artissima 2023 in Italy. He was also selected as a finalist for the Craft Council and Brookfield Properties Award in the UK in 2023, First Global Prize Winner of the M&C Saatchi Group and Saatchi Gallery Art for Change Award in 2022, and first non-South African recipient of the Cassirer Welz Award in South Africa in 2021.

Solo exhibitions include an upcoming show at the Textile Museum of Canada (2024), Toronto, Canada; Saatchi Gallery in collaboration with Tiwani Contemporary (2024), London, UK; What Tomorrow Holds (2024), THK Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa; Interwoven Narratives (2024), Galerie Revel Paris, France; Emotional Catch (2023), Tiwani Contemporary, Lagos, Nigeria; Truth and Conspiracy (2023), Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy; Points of Departures (2023), Galerie Art Mûr, Montreal, Canada; Politics of Clothes (2023), Mitochondria Gallery, Houston, USA; Politics of Fabrics (2023), an expository solo exhibition at The Guest Artists Space Foundation by Yinka Shonibare, Lagos, Nigeria; and Immigration and Integration (2023), The Art House, Wakefield, UK.

Residencies include Black Rock Senegal (2024), BISO International Biennial of Sculpture of Ouagadougou Burkina-Faso (2023), Guest Artists Space (GAS) by the Yinka Shonibare Foundation, Nigeria (2022–23), ROSL and Art House Residency, UK (2022), and Cassirer Welz Award and Bag Factory Residency, South Africa (2021).

Nnorom’s works are found in collections including Taguchi Collection, Tokyo, Japan; Fondazione Marino Golinelli, Bologna, Italy; Ettore Fico Museum, Turin, Italy; Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Geneva, Switzerland; Anthony Davis Collections, Los Angeles, USA; and several important private collections in Europe, Australia, North America, South America, and Africa.

View CV