Nigerian-American artist and designer Dozie Kanu was raised in Houston, where the city’s slab car scene introduced him to a culture of customisation, surface and individuality. This early influence informed his approach to materials and form as vehicles for expressing identity.

Now based in Santarém, Portugal, Kanu works across sculpture, performance and fine art. He reconfigures found objects through material and formal interventions, creating works that challenge conventional categories and resist fixed interpretations.

Kanu received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2016 and was awarded the Humblot Design Prize in 2018. His first museum solo exhibition was presented at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2019. His work has since been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale and the New Museum in New York. He completed the Maumaus Independent Study Program in Lisbon in 2022.