Opening Reception: Saturday, September 12, 2026, 4pm — 7pm (the gallery will be open 12pm — 7pm)

Artist Talk: 4pm

About the exhibition

The Renaissance Society and Fondazione In Between Art Film present Tendered, a solo exhibition by Karimah Ashadu, whose moving-image practice examines the conditions under which bodies are rendered legible within contemporary systems of labor and value, especially within the cultural context of Nigeria and its diaspora.Karimah Ashadu: Tendered will be on view at the Renaissance Society in Chicago from September 12 - November 1, 2026.

Working across film and installation, Ashadu develops close, sustained encounters with people whose lives unfold within informal economies, attending to how aspirations are negotiated under material constraint. 

The exhibition marks the U.S. debut of MUSCLE, a new moving image installation co-commissioned and co-produced by the Renaissance Society, Fondazione In Between Art Film, and Camden Art Centre. Centered on bodybuilders training in the heart of Lagos’s slums, the work situates bodybuilding within a broader field of exertion: the body as site of labor, autonomy, and self-fashioning. MUSCLE is accompanied by a series of new sculptural works, Pure Rugged Water (2025),that draw directly from the film’s environments.

Having grown up between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, the artist situates her point of view within a constant negotiation of distance. In MUSCLE, she works with a sympathetic—and sometimes visceral—proximity to the subjects of the film, eschewing the documentary point of view. As she gathers the stories of men in this film, she extends an ongoing inquiry present in earlier works, including Machine Boys (2024) (on view at the Art Institute of Chicago from September 11 — November 1, 2026),Plateau (2022), and Red Gold (2016). 

The exhibition is organized within the framework of Unison, a biennial initiative established by the Fondazione In Between Art Film to commission and produce moving image-based exhibitions in collaboration with international institutions. 

Publication

Tendered

9.76 x 12.79 inches

168 Pages 

ISBN: 9788867497089 

Tendered is accompanied by the first reference monograph dedicated to the artist, edited by Bianca Stoppani, curator for the editorial and discursive programmes at Fondazione In Between Art Film, with Alessandro Rabottini and Leonardo Bigazzi. Published by Mousse, the monograph features contributions from Karimah Ashadu; Myriam Ben Salah, director and chief curator at The Renaissance Society, Chicago; Leonardo Bigazzi, curator at Fondazione In Between Art Film; Gina Buenfeld-Murley, curator at Camden Art Centre, London; Martin Clark, director at Camden Art Centre, London; Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka, associate professor in film, culture and society, UCL, London; Alessandro Rabottini, artistic director at Fondazione In Between Art Film; Bettina Steinbrügge, director at Mudam Luxembourg; and Arese Uwuoruya, assistant curator at Camden Art Centre.

About the Artist

KARIMAH ASHADU (b. London 1985) is a British-born Nigerian artist and film director living and working between Hamburg and Lagos. 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. Other Institutional shows and screenings include Camden Arts Centre, London, Canal Projects, New York, 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. Current solo shows include the Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover.

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Credits

Tendered is curated by Alessandro Rabottini and Leonardo Bigazzi of Fondazione In Between Art Film with Myriam Ben Salah and Karsten Lund for its iteration at the Renaissance Society. 

Supported by Sadie Coles HQ, London

Pure Rugged Water (2025) was produced with additional support of the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung.

Renaissance Society programs are supported by Teiger Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Events

Conversations at the Edge: An Evening with Karimah Ashadu

Thu, Sept 10, 6PM

Siskel Film Center

164 N. State Street, Chicago, IL 60601

Presented in collaboration with the School of the Art Institute and Gene Siskel Film Center, this screening presents three other films by Karimah Ashadu—Plateau,Brown Goods, and King of Boys—and will be followed by a conversation with the artist.

Opening Reception 

Sat, Sep 12, 4-7pm  

Screening by the African Film Institute

With a conversation between Christian Nyampeta and Natacha Nsabimana

Thu, Oct 15, 7PM

Logan Center for the Arts, 2^nd Floor

In 2019, artist and filmmaker Christian Nyampeta, who is based in New York, launched the African Film Institute, housed at e-flux. In conjunction with Karimah Ashadu’s exhibition, Nyampeta and anthropologist Natacha Nsabimana will show a film and be in conversation as part of their ongoing collaboration on the question of what is African cinema?

Visit renaissancesociety.org for more information.

Image: Karimah Ashadu, MUSCLE, 2025 [Still] HD digital film, colour with stereo sound, 22:20 mins © Karimah Ashadu. Courtesy the Artist, Camden Art Centre, Fondazione In Between Art Film, Sadie Coles HQ and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago.