Camden Art Centre and Fondazione In Between Art Film have announced Tendered, the first institutional solo exhibition in the UK by artist and filmmaker Karimah Ashadu (UK/Nigeria, b. 1985), winner of the Silver Lion for Promising Young Artist at the Venice Biennale 2024.
Curated by Alessandro Rabottini and Leonardo Bigazzi of Fondazione In Between Art Film, the exhibition includes the premier of MUSCLE – a newly commissioned moving-image installation – as well as a series of new sculptures conceived especially for the show that reference objects and environments within the film. MUSCLE (2025) is an intimate portrait of body builders in the heart of Lagos’ slums striving to attain a hyper-masculine ideal, continuing the artist’s research into issues of socio-economic independence and patriarchy within the context of West African culture and society. MUSCLE is commissioned and produced by Camden Art Centre, Fondazione In Between Art Film, and The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, where it will be presented in autumn 2026.
In addition, the exhibition features a selection of earlier moving image works also set in Lagos – King of Boys (Abattoir of Makoko) (2015), a window into the inner workings of the Makoko abattoir, and Cowboy (2022), a two-channel film that follows a man who has dedicated his life to the care of horses – configured within discrete environments that extend aspects of the films into the viewing space. The show takes visitors on a journey through the range of Ashadu’s practice, from the intimate to the expansive, featuring works that form a cinematic narrative of bodies and land – an undulating scenario of urban subcultures, quotidian labour, and our relationship to nature.
Ashadu’s practice looks at the contemporary manifestations of Nigerian history as they are borne by its people and landscape. Having grown up between the United Kingdom and Nigeria, the artist situates her point of view within a constant negotiation of distance, one that pertains to diasporic existences. It is through a sympathetic proximity – as opposed to a documentary approach – that Ashadu observes the struggles, and gathers the stories, of labouring men – from the motorcycle taxi riders in Machine Boys (2024) to the tin miners in Plateau (2022) or the palm oil farmers in Red Gold (2016). Her background in painting carries through to the visual language of her films, combining a strong sense of colour, composition and form, with the fugitive kinetics of her camera lens. This unique approach to the handling of the camera, and the framing of its gaze, defies the tendency towards spectacle in colonial ethnographic documentation. Ashadu’s nuanced and intimate portraits, whether of individuals or communities, probe multifaceted reflections onto the notions of masculinity and patriarchal systems within the cultural context of West Africa, as they are inextricably related to the conditions of economic independence and exploitation in the aftermath of British colonial rule.
Tendered is accompanied by the first reference monograph dedicated to the artist, edited by Bianca Stoppani, editor at Fondazione In Between Art Film, with Alessandro Rabottini and Leonardo Bigazzi. Published by Mousse, the monograph features contributions from Karimah Ashadu; Myriam Ben Salah, director and chief curator at The Renaissance Society, Chicago; Leonardo Bigazzi, curator at Fondazione In Between Art Film; Gina Buenfeld-Murley, curator at Camden Art Centre, London; Martin Clark, director at Camden Art Centre, London; Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka, associate professor in film, culture and society, UCL, London; Alessandro Rabottini, artistic director at Fondazione In Between Art Film; Bettina Steinbrügge, director at Mudam Luxembourg; and Arese Uwuoruya, assistant curator at Camden Art Centre.
Tendered is the second project launched under Unison, a biennial initiative promoted by Fondazione In Between Art Film to commission and produce moving image–based exhibitions in partnership with international public institutions.
Karimah Ashadu: Tendered, 10th October 2025 – 22nd March 2026 Camden Art Centre
Karimah Ashadu is among the shortlisted artists for the Film London Jarman Award 2025.
About the artist
Karimah Ashadu (b. 1985, London) lives and works between Hamburg and Lagos and studied Fine Art and History of Art and Architecture at The University of Reading School of Arts and Communication, Berkshire (2007), an MA in Spatial Design at the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (2011) and De Ateliers, Amsterdam (2014-2016). Her work has been exhibited and screened internationally, with recent and forthcoming solo shows including Tendered, Camden Art Centre, London (2025); Machine Boys, Canal Projects, New York (2025); Machine Boys, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2025); Double Feature, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2023); Plateau, ‘Another Eye’ series, Kunstverein Düsseldorf (2022); Plateau, Tate Modern, London (2022); Plateau, Secession, Vienna (2021); and Power Man, De Ateliers (Amsterdam Art Weekend), Amsterdam (2018). Group exhibitions include Istanbul Biennial (2025); The Gatherers, MoMA PS1, New York (2025); Foreigners Everywhere, Venice Biennale (2024); Sous la terre, les dragons, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou (2024); Who Are We if Not Nature, M.Bassy, Hamburg (2023); Kunstpreis der Böttcherstraße, Bremen Kunsthalle (2022); The Show is Over, South London Gallery, London (2022); Identity not proven, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, NEUES MUSEUM, Nürnberg and Museum Gunzenhauser Chemnitz (2022); Penumbra, Fondazione in between Art Film, Ospedaletto and Church of Santa Maria dei Derelitti, Venice (2022); Rotary Contemporary Art Prize, Bonner Kunstverein (2021); Scratching the Surface, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2021); Shoreline movements, Taipei Biennial 2020; and ars viva 2020, Kunstverein in Hamburg (2020). In 2024, at the 60th Venice Biennale, Ashadu was awarded the Silver Lion for a Promising Young Participant in the International Exhibition. Her work is held in numerous public collections, including MoMA; the City of Geneva Contemporary Art Collection; and the Federal Collection of Contemporary Art, Germany. In 2020, Ashadu established her film production company, Golddust by Ashadu, specialising in artists’ films on black culture and African discourses.
