Nseabasi Akpan
2025
We are excited to announce that Nseabasi Akpan received the Thami Mnyele Foundation residency award and will stay in Amsterdam until January. His residency is in collaboration with CBK Zuidoost and Renske de Jong. During his stay, he will prepare and participate in the exhibition 'AIR in Zuidoost # 2025' at CBK Zuidoost, which opens on 11 December 2025.
Earlier this year, Nseabasi also completed a residency at BijlmAIR, where he focused on the Nigerian community in Amsterdam. Through his ongoing project Voices of Silence, he’s working to build meaningful connections between Nigerians in the diaspora and those who have returned home after living abroad. This new residency gives him the chance to continue this important research.
Nseabasi Akpan (Nigeria, 1978) is a photographer who focuses on storytelling and on documenting the present for the future. He is an advocate for youth empowerment and uses photography as a medium for positive social change. He is the curator and initiator of the annual Ibadan world photography exhibition running on it's 5th year now, having showcased images of 60 photographers from 40 Countries around the world, including the Netherlands.
Nseabasi Akpan, Voices of Silence 2, 2025.
His works have been published by Jeune Afrique Paris, IFRA (Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Tru Applause Magazine, BBC Focus on Africa Magazine London, InsideTrack Abuja, Dérive Austria, and The Platform, and shown in art exhibitions at the Alliance Française Ibadan and Goethe- Institut Nigeria, Chander Haat Kolkata, India. Busan International Art Festival, South Korea, Sculpture Museum Kulturpark Art Gallery Izmir, Turkey, University of Bergen Norway, 11th Aleppo International Photography Festival Syria, African Union Headquarters Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, The Decumanus Gallery Krk, Croatia, French Cultural Center Accra, Ghana, and St. Mary’s University San Antonio, Texas, USA.