Karimah AshaduMUSCLE

In fall 2026, the Renaissance Society presents a solo exhibition by Karimah Ashadu, whose moving-image practice examines the conditions under which bodies are formed, disciplined, and rendered legible within contemporary systems of labor and value, especially within the cultural context of West Africa. 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 centered on bodybuilders training in the informal spaces of Lagos. The work situates bodybuilding within a broader field of exertion: the body as site of labor, investment, and self-fashioning. MUSCLE was co-commissioned and co-produced by the Renaissance Society, Fondazione In Between Art Film, and Camden Art Centre, and is accompanied by a series of new sculptural works that draw directly from the film’s environments.

Having grown up between the United Kingdom and Nigeria, 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), Plateau (2022), and Red Gold (2016).

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