Ranti Bam (born 1982) is a British-Nigerian artist from London and Lagos known for her colourful and sculptural ceramics works made with a variety of clay techniques.

Early life and education

Ranti Bam was born in

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

and raised in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. She received an MA at the School of Art, Architecture and Design in London (formerly The Cass), traveled widely, and lived in Greece. Later, she studied ceramics at City Lit, London. Bam has said she was awakened to the possibility of making art in clay after visiting the Africa Remix exhibit at the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Royal ...

in London: "It was like an opening of my third-eye," she told an interviewer for ''Ceramic Review'', "For the first time I was seeing contemporary work made by African artists."

Career

After completing her Fine and Applied Arts course in ceramics at City Lit, Bam has exhibited her work in group and solo exhibitions in Europe, North America, and Africa. In 2017, the director of the London gallery 50 Golborne, Pascale Revert, invited Bam to exhibit her ceramics at the U.K.

Crafts Council The Crafts Council is the national development agency for contemporary craft in the United Kingdom, and is funded by Arts Council England. History The Crafts Advisory Committee was formed in 1971 to advise the Minister for the Arts, David Eccle ...

's annual ''Collect'' exhibition for the first time; her work was so successful there it was exhibited at ''Collect'' for three years in a row. 50 Golborne has also exhibited her work in their booth at the Contemporary African Art Fair in Paris. In 2018, she participated in curator Bisi Silva's group show ''The Gallery of Small Things'' in

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

. Bam has held residencies at in Sablons, France; Catinca Tabacaru Gallery in

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

, Zimbabwe; and the

Cité Internationale des Arts The Cité internationale des arts is an artist-in-residence building complex which accommodates artists of all specialities and nationalities in Paris. It comprises two sites, one located in the Marais and the other in Montmartre. Approximately ...

in Paris, France, where she spent much of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the V&A and the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

. Through her artistic practice and residencies, and by teaching workshops and interactive sessions, particularly those with members of disenfranchised communities and feminist activists, Bam continues to explore the formal possibilities of clay and the socially engaged aspects of her practice.

Collections

Brooklyn, NY, USA (''Antafi'', 2019) *

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

, London, England. * Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI, USA

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bam, Ranti 21st-century British artists British women artists Nigerian artists 1978 births Living people British people of Nigerian descent Artists from Lagos Artists from London Alumni of London Metropolitan University