Humus Blues

Humus Blues: colour as memory
Singer Laren to present a solo exhibition by Sikkens Prize winner Otobong Nkanga

From 27 October 2026 through 28 February 2027, Singer Laren will present Humus Blues, a solo exhibition by the internationally renowned artist and winner of the 2026 Sikkens Prize, Otobong Nkanga (1974, Kano, Nigeria). Sculptures, monumental tapestries, drawings, paintings, photographs and poetry offer a multifaceted introduction to her artistic practice. Nkanga deploys colour, in-depth research and the innovative use of materials to reveal the complex connections between landscapes, people, systems and historical events. 

The exhibition will open after the 2026 Sikkens Prize is awarded to Otobong Nkanga on Monday 26 October. Through this Prize, the Sikkens Foundation recognises makers who give colour an innovative and vital role in their work. Nkanga has been selected as this year’s winner because, in a time that calls for both imagination and responsibility, she shows that the power of colour begins where it awakens – in the earth, in the community, in life itself.


Otobong Nkanga. Photo: Gerrit Schreurs

Humus Blues 
Humus refers not only to the fertile topsoil that nourishes new life, but also to our planet itself, which is under threat from pollution and the extraction of raw materials. Blues stands for both the colour blue and the blues music that interweaves melancholy and loss with rhythm, perseverance and the ability to transform pain into something new. The exhibition invites visitors to re-imagine their relationship to the Earth – to see it not as something outside ourselves, but as a living whole in which we participate on a bodily, economic and emotional level.

In Nkanga’s work, meaning emerges in the dialogue between materials: wires form networks, corrosion turns metal to dust and minerals provide colour, lustre and texture. Colour also functions as a vessel for memory. Nothing can exist without the past; today takes on a different hue than yesterday. 

Connections
Nkanga moves freely between textile art, sculpture, installation, performance, painting, photography, ceramics and spoken word. Humus Blues presents works from various periods and disciplines in a dialectic context, supplemented by new work created by Nkanga specifically for this exhibition. The artist has additionally chosen to include two works from the Singer Laren collection: the socially engaged 1888-1889 painting The eve of the strike (Dark clouds) by Jan Toorop and Jaap Weijand’s The Pond in the Wood from 1911. What these paintings have in common is how colour acts as a portal to a world beyond the visible, lending a soulful presence to the natural world.

2026 Sikkens Prize
The Sikkens Prize is a major international award presented once every two years for exceptional achievements in the field of colour. The first recipient of the Prize was Gerrit Rietveld in 1959. Previous honourees include Le Corbusier, Donald Judd, Bridget Riley, Hella Jongerius, David Chipperfield, Pipilotti Rist and garden designer Piet Oudolf, whose projects include the sculpture garden at Singer Laren. Humus Blues marks the first time the Sikkens Foundation has honoured a laureate with a solo exhibition. Nkanga’s work will also feature prominently in ReflAction, to be held in Amsterdam this autumn. 

About Otobong Nkanga
Otobong Nkanga has had solo exhibitions in the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, MCBA Lausanne, MoMA in New York, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among others. She has taken part in international exhibitions such as documenta 14, the Sydney Biennale and the Venice Biennale. Nkanga has received numerous awards, including the 2019 Sharjah Biennial 14 Prize and the 2025 Nasher Prize for Sculpture.

Humus Blues, the exhibition by Sikkens Prize winner Otobong Nkanga, will be on display in Singer Laren from 27 October 2026 through 28 February 2027. The AkzoNobel Art Foundation Art Space in Amsterdam will present the exhibition ReflAction from 1 October 2026 through 28 February 2027.