Dozie Kanu has created an ensemble of surreal objects that highlights the tensions between public and private aspects of the self, titled On Elbows. A vessel of black liquid that pulses at the rate of a human heartbeat and a chaise longue chair (typically associated with psychoanalysis) cast in concrete evoke self-reflection and also the murky depths of the individual and collective unconscious. The sofa’s “Texan Wire Wheels” rims (also referred to as “elbows” or “swangas”) reference the vibrant automobile “SLAB culture” of the artist’s native Houston. He describes the customization of cars within this tradition as a “free and playful fashioning of one’s own material property – gestures that I find deeply complex and layered given the relationship that Black Americans continue to navigate between ownership and agency.”
Dozie Kanu’s On Elbows transforms surreal objects into a form of public sculpture exploring tensions between private and public selves. A black liquid pulses like a heartbeat, while a concrete chaise suggests reflection and the collective unconscious. The sofa’s “Texan Wire Wheels” (or “swangas”) reference Houston’s SLAB car culture, which Kanu describes as a “free and playful fashioning of one’s own material property,” - a gesture layered with complexity given Black Americans’ ongoing negotiation of ownership and agency.
Appropriating found objects and refashioning them to new aesthetics, Dozie Kanu creates sculptures and photography that are inherently disobedient and stubbornly slippery. They resist classification and exist instead as communicative or performative objects. Kanu’s ongoing investigation into the limits of form, functionality, materiality and usefulness are often filtered through a personal lens drawn from the artist’s lived experiences.
Dozie Kanu’s practice explores the tensions between form and function, art and design. He repurposes found objects and materials to create his own visual lexicon, drawing on personal experiences, pop culture and motifs from the African diaspora. His sculptures and installations reference utilitarian forms and domestic ideas, while resisting simple categories. His works exist concurrently as communicative or performative objects. Often repurposing objects deemed useless, the artist honors and reanimates the people whose labour gave them function. In extending the lives of these items, he perpetuates the existence of those who brought them into being. His memorialization is a site of collective mourning of which has not yet ceased to exist, acknowledging that the pathways and legacies of the oppressive systems of the past continue to characterize the present.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Dozie Kanu’s practice explores the tensions between form and function, art and design. He repurposes found objects and materials to create his own visual lexicon, drawing on personal experiences, pop culture and motifs from the African diaspora. His sculptures and installations reference utilitarian forms and domestic ideas, while resisting simple categories. His works exist concurrently as communicative or performative objects. Often repurposing objects deemed useless, the artist honors and reanimates the people whose labour gave them function. In extending the lives of these items, he perpetuates the existence of those who brought them into being. His memorialization is a site of collective mourning of which has not yet ceased to exist, acknowledging that the pathways and legacies of the oppressive systems of the past continue to characterize the present.
Dozie Kanu (b. 1993, Houston, TX) is an American artist who lives and works in Santarém, Portugal. He graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2016 and participated in the Maumas Independent Study Program in Lisbon in 2022. Most recently, he exhibited at anonymous gallery (2025); Gianni Manhattan, Vienna (2024); Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2024); Drei, Cologne (2024); Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin (2023); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2023); Quinn Harrelson Gallery, Los Angeles (2023); C-Mine, Genk (2023); Oregon Center for Contemporary Art, Portland (2023); Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich (2022); SFMOMA, San Francisco (2022); Project Native Informant, London
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