ARTIST AND POET Precious Okoyomon

Precious Okoyomon (born in London, based in New York City) is a Nigerian-American artist and poet whose multidisciplinary practice investigates the racialisation of the natural world, Christianity, intimacy and ideas and experiences of life, death and time. Their installations, sculptures, performances and poetry often draw from their family history as well as their encounters with queerness. Their most ambitious installation to date, which opened at the Aspen Art Museum in June 2021, reimagines the museum’s rooftop with each passing season as part of an ongoing investigation into how the miracles and terrors of our natural world have been indexed into racialised categories. They have had solo exhibitions at the Luma Westbau in Zurich (2018), the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt (2020) and Performance Space New York (2021). Their second book But Did U Die? (2021) explores the complexities of their identity as a black queer immigrant inhabiting a specific class position. Okoyomon was a 2020 artist-in-residence at the LUMA Arles, and they are a recipient of the Frieze Artist Award (2021).