From Venice to Hannover: Kaloki Nyamai’s Rising Global Impact
by Glory Onyekwusi Apr 20, 2026
Kenyan artist Kaloki Nyamai has unveiled a major new installation at Sprengel Museum Hannover, marking a significant moment in his expanding international trajectory. Opened on 10 April 2026 and running until 5 July 2026, the presentation introduces three monumental textile works, each rising to six metres, installed within the museum’s Calder Hall.
Known for its capacity to host large-scale, immersive works, Calder Hall provides a fitting architectural context for Nyamai’s practice, where material, scale, and spatial tension converge. The towering textiles command attention, their surfaces layered with torn, assembled, and stitched fragments that speak to histories both personal and collective.
Nyamai’s work navigates themes of memory, identity, and power, drawing from complex narratives across the African continent. His process—rooted in accumulation and reconstruction—produces dense, tactile compositions where materials are held together under visible strain. These works do not seek neat resolution; instead, they foreground rupture, resilience, and the ongoing act of repair.
The installation is presented alongside Horst Antes. Eine Sammlung, a comprehensive retrospective of Horst Antes. Curated by the artist himself, the exhibition brings together approximately 80 paintings spanning from the 1960s to the present, alongside key sculptural works, including Garden of the Seven Monuments of Pleasure, originally created for the 1967 Federal Garden Show.
This juxtaposition creates a compelling dialogue between distinct artistic languages and historical contexts. Antes’ work, rooted in postwar European modernism, engages with form and figuration through a controlled, often symbolic vocabulary. In contrast, Nyamai’s textiles embrace fragmentation and material tension, offering a contemporary perspective shaped by layered histories and lived experience.
Renowned for its strong holdings in modern and contemporary art, the Sprengel Museum Hannover has long positioned itself as a site of dialogue between historical European practices and global contemporary voices. Its collection, significantly expanded through philanthropy—including a major 1988 donation from collectors Wolf and Ursula Hermann—now holds the largest public collection of Antes’ work. Within this context, Nyamai’s installation enters not as a standalone presentation, but as part of a broader institutional conversation.
Nyamai first gained widespread international recognition with The True Size of Africa, presented in the Kenyan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022. His inclusion among the 111 artists selected for the 61st edition of the Biennale, titled In Minor Keys and opening on 9 May 2026, further underscores his growing global presence.
This latest presentation in Hannover reflects a continued expansion of Nyamai’s practice—both in scale and in institutional reach. As museums increasingly reconsider how histories are constructed, displayed, and contested, his work offers a powerful intervention: one that resists singular narratives and instead insists on complexity, fragmentation, and the enduring act of reconstruction.
📍 Location: Kurt-Schwitters-Platz, Hannover, Germany
🎟️ Admission: Free (opening)
