Dozie Kanu

Dozie Kanu

BornNationalityBased In
1993American/NigerianNew York City, Santarém
Biography

Appropriating found objects and refashioning them to new aesthetics, Dozie Kanu creates sculptures and photography that are inherently disobedient and stubbornly slippery. They resist classification and exist instead as communicative or performative objects. Kanu’s ongoing investigation into the limits of form, functionality, materiality and usefulness are often filtered through a personal lens drawn from the artist’s lived experiences. In the artist’s debut solo exhibition at Project Native Informant, Owe Deed, One Deep, 2020, every sculpture remixes and modifies found objects, with the visible rust as a reminder of how readily items are discarded once they are deemed no longer productive. The repurposing of objects deemed useless, the artist honours and reanimates the people whose labour gave them function. In extending the lives of these unwanted items, he perpetuates the existence of those who brought them into being. His memorialisation is a site of collective mourning which has not yet ceased to exist, acknowledging that the pathways and legacies of the oppressive systems of the past continue to characterize the present. ...

Selected Artworks
Chair [iii] Commission
Shrine On (Use a Pillow)
AB (Blood Type)
Dozie KanuAB (Blood Type), 2021
44.5 x 36.8 x 36.8cm
negative (Blood Type)
Headboard (Abject Twin)
At The Moment
Dozie KanuAt The Moment, 2021
142.2 x 116.8 x 55.9cm
Bench on 84s
Dozie KanuBench on 84s, 2017
52.1 x 264.2 x 45.7cm
Emo State
Dozie KanuEmo State, 2020
31.5 x 26 x 3.5cm
0’s and 1’s
merrill-y
Dozie Kanumerrill-y, 2020
75.5 x 72.5 x 125cm
Proper Distraction (Mirror)
Prediction
hang something metric
Student Loan Debt Relief 2
Shack
Dozie KanuShack, 2022
62.5 x 50 x 3cm
Gallery Representation
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