Sokari Douglas Camp — From Our Store

Internationally renowned sculptor, Sokari Douglas Camp, creates her works primarily in steel. Her often large-scale sculptures make frequent reference to her Nigerian roots, while at the same time encompassing contemporary international issues. Douglas Camp is one of the winners of the Memorial for Ken Saro-Wiwa in London and was also one of the shortlisted artists for the Fourth Plinth in 2003.

Douglas Camp first exhibited at October Gallery in 1985. She has had more than forty solo shows worldwide and in 2005, was awarded a CBE in recognition of her services to art. Her work is in the permanent collections of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA; Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; and the British Museum, London, UK. In 2012, her large sculpture, All the World is Now Richer, a memorial to commemorate the abolition of slavery, was exhibited in The House of Commons and then in 2014 at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. In 2016, her successful solo show, Primavera, at October Gallery, brought together major new sculptures which focussed on the reinterpretation of familiar figures from the European classic tradition as depicted by Botticelli and William Blake. Douglas Camp was selected for Ichihara Art X Mix 2020, Japan and created the largescale sculpture Manmade for the festival, on a moving tram carriage at Goi Station. She was also one of the international artists selected to create a column for STOA169 in Polling, Germany; a globally unique artist columned permanent hall that unites contemporary artistic ideas and different cultural concepts in one place.

Her third solo exhibition at October Gallery in 2022, Jonkonnu Masquerade, included a series of new works exploring the masquerade of ‘Jonkonnu’ both within its Caribbean context and that of the broader African diaspora. This exhibition has coincided with her large-scale sculpture Europe Supported by Africa and America being displayed at the V&A to complement the Africa Fashion exhibition. Two larger-than-life-sized steel interlinking sculptures, Tussling Jonkonnu, have also been part of the Kensington and Chelsea Art Week, 2022.