On the Brink: New Work by Nnenna Okore

EAM presents new work by internationally celebrated sculptor Nnenna Okore. Through repetitive, labor-intensive processes, Okore transforms discarded and organic materials like burlap, newspapers, plastic bags and twine into large-scale wall hangings and installations. Okore’s dramatic and undulating forms float in and across space, often casting shadows on their surrounds. Influenced by the textures, colors and landscapes of her Chicago milieu as well as the more rural environment of the small town in Nigeria where she was raised, Okore’s new fiber and paper works explore the fluidity of life, finding beauty in the inevitable processes of aging and decay. Okore is a professor of art at Chicago’s North Park University, has upcoming solo exhibitions at David Krut Projects in New York and the Krannert Art Museum in Champaign, IL, and was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award in 2013.