Karimah Ashadu

Karimah Ashadu (born 1985 in London) is a British-born Nigerian artist and film director living and working between Hamburg and Lagos. Ashadu's practice is concerned with labour, patriarchy and notions of independence pertaining to the socio-economic and socio-cultural context of Nigeria and its diaspora.
Her work has been exhibited and screened at institutions internationally, including the 60th Venice Biennale, where she was awarded the Silver Lion for a Promising Young Participant in the International Exhibition. Her work has been shown at Camden Arts Centre, London, Canal Projects and MoMA PS1, New York, Kunsthalle Bremen, Tate Modern, London, Secession, Vienna, Kunstverein in Hamburg, South London Gallery, London, Museum of Modern Art, New York and Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève. Forthcoming solo shows include The Renaissance Society, Chicago.
Ashadu is the recipient of other awards such as the Lichtwark Förderung Prize (2025), Prize of the Böttcherstraße in Bremen (2022) and the ars viva prize (2020). Public collections include MoMA, the City of Geneva Contemporary Art Collection and the Federal Collection of Contemporary Art, Germany. Fellowships include the Abigail R. Cohen fellowship at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, Paris. In 2020, Ashadu established her film production company Golddust by Ashadu, specialising in Artists' films on black culture and African discourses.