Kew Royal Botanical Gardens London | Between Earth and Sky | Nnenna Okore | Exhibition

An Art Installation by Nnenna Okore. 20.09. - 02.11.2025

Temperate House, Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, Richmond, London, TW9 3AE.

Presented in conjunction with the Autumn festival: Material World.

The Kew Royal Botanical Gardens present a Nnenna Okore's new large-scale sculptural artwork, Between Earth and Sky, created for Material World, that transforms organic materials into captivating installations, challenging how we see everyday matter.

The festival of Art, Fashion and Horticulture Material World takes place inside the stunning Temperate House, inquiring the origins of the fabrics we wear, celebrating traditional crafts and Indigenous knowledge as well as identity and heritage and imagining a more responsible future for fashion.

Australian-born, Nigerian-raised artist Nnenna Okore (*1975 Canberra, AUS) lives and works in both Chicago, Illinois, and works temporarily in Nigeria, her family's home country, as part of teaching assignments, exhibitions, etc. Okore engages in various climate policy initiatives in both countries and teaches since 2005 at North Park University in Chicago. Okore studied at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka until 1999 with El Anatsui and at the University of Iowa until 2005. With her research on the use of bioplastics as an art material, she obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (Fine Art) degree from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, in 2023.

Her work is represented by the galleries Sakhile&Me, Frankfurt, October Gallery, London, and Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco. In Okore’s works, colors and shapes, textures and materials flow in from three cultural spheres – Australia, Nigeria, and the USA. In her multimedia objects, we can see the cultural legacies and traditions of craftsmanship found in her countries of birth and childhood as they combine with visual interpretations of natural cycles and energies, her works are informed by current environmental policy issues and feminist discourses.