In fall 2026, the Renaissance Society presents Tendered, 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 heart of Lagos’s slums. 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 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), 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 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.

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. Forthcoming solo shows include the Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover.

Karimah Ashadu: Tendered is presented in conjunction with the installation of the artist’s work Machine Boys at the Art Institute of Chicago, opening September 11, 2026.

Principal support for this exhibition is provided by Raven Thomas Abdul-Aleem & Zaid Abdul-Aleem. Additional support is provided by Mirja Spooner Haffner & Karim Corringham and Sadie Coles HQ, London.

Major annual support for the Renaissance Society is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Renaissance Society programs are supported by Teiger Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. General operations are supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council and The Provost’s Discretionary Fund at the University of Chicago.

All Renaissance Society publications are made possible by The Mansueto Foundation Publications Program.

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Tags: Chicago, Hyde Park, Karimah Ashadu, Tendered, Then Renaissance Society