CHICAGO, IL.- 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.
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.
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’ArtContemporain Genève. Forthcoming solo shows include the Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover.
