Karimah Ashadu (b. London 1985) is a British-born Nigerian Artist living and working between Hamburg and Lagos. Ashadu’s work is concerned with labour and self-determination practices pertaining to the social, economic and cultural context of Nigeria and its diaspora.

Her work has exhibited and screened at institutions internationally, including the 60th Venice Biennale, where she was awarded the Silver Lion for a Promising Young Participant in the International Exhibition. She has shown at Kunsthalle Bremen, Tate Modern, London, Secession, Vienna, Kunstverein in Hamburg, South London Gallery, London, Museum of Modern Art, New York and Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève.

Ashadu is the recipient of other awards such as the Prize of the Bötterstraße in Bremen (2022) and the ars viva prize (2020). Public collections include MoMA, the City of Geneva Contemporary Art Collection and the Federal Collection of Contemporary Art, Germany. She was named Abigail R. Cohen 2021 Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, Paris. In 2020, Ashadu established her film production company Golddust by Ashadu, specialising in Artists’ films on black culture and African discourses.

2014 – 2016
De Ateliers, Amsterdam

2011
Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
M.A. Spatial Design (film specialism)

2007
The University of Reading School of Arts and Communication, Berkshire
B.A (Hons) Fine Art and History of Art and Architecture (painting, video)

2025
(Title TBC) Camden Art Center, London (Forthcoming)

2023
“Plateau” (“Interwoven Histories”), Galerie Ursula Walter, Dresden

2021
“Plateau”, Secession, Vienna
“Plateau”, Produzentengalerie (with Neue Kunst in Hamburg e.V), Hamburg

2018
“Power Man”, De Ateliers (Amsterdam Art Weekend)

2024
“The Miraculous Arms“, François Ghebaly, LA, curated by Martha Kirszenbaum
“Foreigners Everywhere“, Venice Biennale, Italy, curated by Adriano Pedrosa
“Sous la terre, les dragons”, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou

2023
“Who Are We if Not Nature”, M.Bassy, Hamburg

2022
“A Different Now is Close Enough to Exhale on You”, Goodman Gallery, J’burg/Cape Town
“Kunstpreis der Böttcherstraße“, Bremen Kunsthalle, Bremen
“The Show is Over”, South London Gallery, London
“Identity not proven” (new acquisitions of the federal collection) Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, NEUES MUSEUM, Nürnberg and Museum Gunzenhauser Chemnitz
“Penumbra”, Fondazione in between Art Film, Ospedaletto and Church of Santa Maria dei Derelitti, Venice

2021
Rotary Contemporary Art Prize, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn
“Scratching the Surface”, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin

2020
Taipei Biennial 2020, “Shoreline movements”, Taiwan
ars viva 2020, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, DE

2024
VIENNALE, Vienna (“Machine Boys” Austrian Premiere-forthcoming)
IDFA, Amsterdam (“Machine Boys” Dutch Premiere-forthcoming)
La Roche-sur-Yon International Film Festival France (“Machine Boys” French Premiere-forthcoming)
62nd New York Film Festival, New York (“Machine Boys” North American Premiere-forthcoming)
Notes on Air, Salt Beyoğlu Forum, Istanbul Sole Luna Doc Film Festival, Palermo, Italy
Visions du Réel, Nyon, Switzerland (“Machine Boys” World Premiere)
Sepik River Film Festival, Papau New Guinea

2023
“History is not the past”, Wolf Cinema, Berlin (Palais Populaire, Deutsche Bank)
“Karimah Ashadu: “Double Feature”, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt

2022
“Karimah Ashadu: Plateau” – “Another Eye” series, Kunstverein Düsseldorf
“Penumbra Expanded”, MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy
“Karimah Ashadu: Plateau”, Tate Modern (Starr Cinema), London
Visions du Réel, Nyon, Switzerland

2021
“Black is not a Colour”, Kunsthalle Schirn, Frankfurt

2020
Short Film Festival Hamburg, “Hamburg Positions: Spheres of the Colonial”, MARKK Museum, Hamburg
“KunstBewusst x Afrika Film Festival”, Museum Ludwig, Cologne
“From Soil, Sand, and Salt Crystals: Films and Natural Processes”, University of Chicago, Film studies center

2022
Fogo Island, Canada (postponed)

2021
Abigail R. Cohen Fellow- Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, Paris 

2024
“Machine Boys”
08:50 mins, HD digital film, colour with 5.1 surround sound
Single channel

2022
“Cowboy”
10:00 mins, HD digital film, colour with stereo sound
Two channel

“Plateau”
30:00 mins, HD digital film, colour with stereo sound
Single channel

2021
“Plateau”
27:00 mins, HD digital film, colour with stereo sound
Two channel installation

2020
“Brown Goods”
12.00 mins, HD digital film, colour with mono sound

2024
60th Venice Biennale Catalogue

2023
ZEIT Foundation Grantees, catalogue (postponed)
“Penumbra”, Fondazione In Between Art Film (text by Taylor Aldridge), Mousse publishing

2022
Prize of the Böttcherstraße in Bremen, catalogue, Kunsthalle Bremen
Arts of the working class (Issue 21 “Around the World in 80 Pages”, June 2022) Maria Inez Plaza Lazo

2021
“Open Shields”, Secession, Vienna (artist’s book with text by Erika Balsom), Revolver Publishing
“Hitherto” (in association with Neue Kunst in Hamburg – artists’ book with text by Leonie Radine ), Textem Verlag
Artline>Nord Magazine (Nov 2021), Hamburg (cover image and review)

2019
ars viva catalogue “Of Men and Boys”, Greg de Cuir, Kerber Verlag

2023
“Double Feature”, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (inc. Artist Talk and Interview)

2022
“Another Eye”, Kunstverein Düsseldorf (inc. Artist Talk with Kathrin Bentele)
“Vanishing Points”, Karimah Ashadu in conversation with Osei Bonsu, Venice (Public talk program for the exhibition “Penumbra”)
“An Evening with Karimah Ashadu”, Tate Modern, London (inc. Artist Talk with Valentine Umansky)

2021
Visiting Artist (studio visits), De Ateliers, Amsterdam

2020
Artist Talk with Leonie Radine, Museum Ludwig, Cologne (KunstBewusst x Afrika Film Festival)
Bronnbacher Stipendiaten Workshop (Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft) “An instinctive approach to the moving image”, Hamburg
Artist Talk with Bettina Steinbrügge, Kunstverein in Hamburg

2019
Workshop,”The Camera as public instrument”, Merz Akademie, Stuttgart

2024
Silver Lion for a Promising Young Participant in the International Exhibition, 60th Venice Biennale

2023
Longlisted – Film London Jarman Award

2022
Prize of the Böttcherstraße, Germany
Longlisted – Film London Jarman Award

2021
Shortlisted – Wi Di Mimba Wi :: The AKB & SAVVY Contemporary Commission Prize
Longlisted – Preis der Nationalgalerie, Germany

2020
Contemporary art prize, Rotary Club Bonn, Novara and Strasbourg

2019
ars viva prize, Germany

2024
Moin Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein (via Golddust by Ashadu U.G)

2022
Fine arts project funding, Department for Culture and Media, Hamburg

2021
ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius scholarship
Production grant, Department for Culture and Media, Hamburg

2020
Script development grant, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein
Travel grant, Neue Kunst in Hamburg, Hamburg
Production grant (Chrysalis Fellow), Media City Film Festival, Ontario
Production grant, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein
Production grant, Hamburg Kulturstiftung

Akeroyd Collection
Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany
FRAC des pays de la Loire, France
Fondazione in between Art Film, Italy
Federal Collection of Contemporary Art, Germany
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
Fonds Municipal d’Art Contemporain de la Ville de Genève, Geneva