Karimah Ashadu

Biography

Karimah Ashadu (Nigeria/UK) is an artist and filmmaker whose practice is concerned with perceptions of self and place, and notions of labour pertaining to Nigeria and West Africa. Her work has been exhibited at Hamburg Kunstverein and Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst (Leipzig), De Ateliers (Amsterdam), MoMA, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Faena Arts Center (Buenos Aires), and Faena Forum (Miami). She is the recipient of several awards and grants including the Filmförderung Hamburg, African Culture Fund and Hamburg Kulturstiftung. She has been awarded jury prizes at Media City Film Festival (2013), Ann Arbor Film Festival, and the European Media Art Festival. She was a Featured Artist at the 64th Robert Flaherty Seminar (2018), and participant of artists’ institute De Ateliers (2014-2016). Ashadu was winner of the 2018-2020 Edith Breckwoldt Studio Fellowship, in association with The Ministry of Culture Hamburg and Künstlerhaus FRISE. She was awarded the ars viva prize 2020. Her work is in public collections at the Museum of Modern Art and in the City of Geneva’s Contemporary Art Collection. In 2020, Ashadu established her film production company Golddust by Ashadu, specializing in artists’ films on black culture and African themes. She will be an artist in residence on Fogo Island, Canada in 2020. She lives and works in Hamburg and Lagos.