Artist Talk with Nneka Kai

Join KMAC for an evening with artist Nneka Kai, whose exhibition Holding Pattern is currently on view at KMAC.

Nneka Kai is an interdisciplinary artist from Atlanta, GA, whose practice is rooted in the exploration of personal and archival narratives through the material of hair. She received her MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was a research assistant at the Textile Resource Center. There she explored the history and conservation aspects of textiles within the Fiber & Material Studies collection. Not seeing herself represented in the objects, she decided to research the peripherals of textiles, in hopes of uncovering Black women’s material sensibilities throughout the diaspora. She also received her BFA from Georgia State University, where her material studies sparked her curiosity for hair. Currently, Nneka’s studio practice explores these findings through fiber, sculpture, and performance works, emphasizing methods of abstraction and opacity. She has performed her works in Chicago, Atlanta, and North Carolina. In 2021, Nneka exhibited in the Hair Stories Exhibition at The Newport Art Museum in Rhode Island. She is currently working as an art teacher while exploring her home in Atlanta, Georgia as a site of Black presence and preservation.
This program is free and open to the public, but we ask anyone interested in attending to register by emailing KMAC’s Assistant Curator, Anna Blake, at anna@kmacmuseum.org