EDUCATION
2020 - MFA in Painting/Printmaking, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut
2013 - BFA in Film/Animation/Video, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Providence, Rhode Island
SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
2026
FOCUS: Africanus Okokon, Frieze Los Angeles, (Ochi Gallery)
Translator's Note, Ochi Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2024
Touch Products, von ammon co, Washington DC
2022
Unpossessed, Helena Anrather Gallery, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES
2026
Magical Thinking, of Systems and Beliefs, Tufts University Art Galleries, Boston, MA (Group Exhibition)
2025
The Intimacies Between Continents, Contemporary Arts Center Gallery, University of California, Irvine, Claire Trevor School of the Arts (Three-Person Exhibition)
Veronica, Veronica, Hesse Flatow, Amagansett, NY (Group Exhibition)
Tomorrow is Already Behind Us, Lyles and King Gallery, New York, NY (Group Exhibition)
THIS IS NOT A RETREAT! NXTHVN Through the Years, Ford Foundation Gallery, New York, NY (Group Exhibition and Performance)
(It’s a) Whole Lotta Money (in this muf****er), Harlesden High Street & Kendra Jayne Patrick, Basel Social Club, Basel, Switzerland (Fair Booth)
2023
Magical Thinking Symposium, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (Performance)
Middle Gallery, Helena Anrather Gallery, New York, NY (Group Exhibition)
2022
Subtle Subversions, Microscope Gallery, New York, NY (Group Exhibition)
NXTHVN - Undercurrents, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY (Group Exhibition)
2020
Living in America: An Exhibition in Four Acts, International Print Center New York, New York, NY (Group Exhibition)
Yale University Painting and Printmaking MFA, Perrotin Gallery, New York, NY (Viewing Salon) (Group Exhibition)
Only When You Are Called: Yale Painting Thesis Show, Green Gallery, Yale School of Art (Group Exhibition)
2017
Other People Presents: Two Shows, The Kitchen, NY, NY (Performance)
Friction Fiction: Survey of Black Animation, Amadlozi Gallery, African Heritage Arts Center, Miami, FL,, The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN (Group Exhibition)
2014
Cadence Exits, Proxy, Providence, RI (Group Exhibition)
2013
Hip-Hop Post-Mortem, Brooklyn Fire Proof, Brooklyn, NY (Performance)
SCREENINGS AND FESTIVALS
2025
Unclaimed Experience: a night of film and video, Harvard University Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge, MA (Screening)
2023
YES: Miatta Kawinzi / Africanus Okokon (Showcase Screening and Q&A) Microscope Gallery, New York, NY
2022
Gleaners Film Festival (Installation) Lanchester, PA
2021
Chicago Underground Film Festival (In-Competition Screening) (Winner: The Decolonize This Award) Chicago, IL
Camden International Film Festival (Screening) Camden, ME
True/False Film Festival (In-Competition Screening) Columbia, MO
2020
Blackstar Film Festival (In-Competition Screening and Panel Discussion) Philadelphia, PA (Virtual)
2019
Archival Interventions (Screening and Panel Discussion) Whitney Humanities Center at Yale, Yale University, New Haven, CT
2019
Chale Wote Street Arts Festival: The LABS (Screening and Panel Discussion) Folkspace, National Theatre of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
An Evening of Film and Performance: MLK Day Weekend (Screening) Gloria’s Project Space, Ridgewood, NY
CAVE Festival - Not Found (Screening) Cellular Cinema, Minneapolis, MN
2016
Eyewash: Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation (Screening) Dartmouth College, Hanover, ME
2014
Fluxus Moon Cabaret (Screening) AS220 Black Box Theatre, Providence, RI
2013
New England Animation Film Festival (Screening) Institute of Contemporary Art/ Boston, Boston, MA
Eyeworks Experimental Animation Festival( Screening) Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY
2012
Ottawa International Animation Festival (In-Competition Screening and Panel Discussion) Ottawa, Canada
London International Animation Festival (Screening) London, UK
Australian International Animation Festival (Screening) Melbourne, Australia
Animator Festival (In-Competition Screening) Poznan, Poland
Holland Animation Film Festival (In-Competition Screening) Utrecht, Netherlands
2011
Ottawa International Animation Festival (In-Competition Screening and Panel Discussion) Ottawa, Canada
DISCOGRAPHY
2024
Offering, Other People (OP080)
Producer, Written By, Performer, Recorded By, Mixed By, Artwork
2015
Turkson Side, Other People (OP029)
Producer, Performer, Recorded By, Mixed By, Artwork
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
2025 - RISD Professional Development Fund, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2021-2022 - NXTHVN Studio Fellowship, New Haven, CT
2020-2021 - Artspace New Haven Artist-in-Residence, New Haven, CT
2020 - New American Paintings Issue #152
2021 - Decolonize This Award, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago, IL
2019 - Alice Kimball Traveling Fellowship Yale School University of Art
ARTIST PUBLICATIONS
Africanus Okokon + Maziyar Pahlevan (sound works + art works) (Other People, 2017)
PROFESSIONAL AND TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2021 - Present: Assistant Professor Film/Animation/Video, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)
2020 - 2021: Assistant Professor in Residence, Film/Animation/Video, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)
2019 – Teaching Assistant to Robert Storr: Painting Basics
2015 - 2018 Institute of Contemporary Art/ Boston, Boston, MA Interpretive Media and Adult Education Programs Coordinator, Education Department
TALKS AND LECTURES
2026
Visiting Artist Talk, Wesleyan University (Intermediate Time-Based Media)
2025
Visiting Artist Lecture Series, Yale University School of Art (Sculpture)
Visiting Artist Talk, Wesleyan University (Intermediate Time-Based Media)
2024
Visiting Artist Panel Discussion, Yale University School of Art (Painting)
2019
Visiting Critic: Rhode Island School of Design (Open Media, Film/ Animation/ Video)
Visiting Artist Talk: Rhode Island School of Design (Open Media, Film/ Animation/ Video)
2018
Visiting Guest Critic: Rhode Island School of Design (Animation, Film/ Animation/ Video)
Visiting Artist Talk: Rhode Island School of Design (Animation, Film/ Animation/ Video)
2014
Visiting Artist: Institute of Contemporary Art/ Boston Teen Arts Council
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2014 - 2016 Other People (Record Label) Art Director/ Artistic Producer/ Designer
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY AND PRESS
The Art Newspaper, “Expert Eye: Curator Cornelia Stokes’s Frieze LA Favourites,” by Cornelia Stokes, February 26, 2026. Web.
Frieze, “Work in Progress: Africanus Okokon,” by Africanus Okokon and Livia Russell, January 2026. Web.
Frieze, “Five Emerging Artists to Watch at Frieze Los Angeles 2026,” November 2025. Web.
DJ Mag, “Six Emerging Artists You Need to Hear: January 2025,” by Claire Francis, January 2025. Print.
Fifteen Questions, “Interview with Okokon: Everything Is a Ritual,” by Africanus Okokon and Tobias Fischer, December 2024. Web.
Electronic Sound, “Okokon – Offering” (album review), by Spenser Tomson, December 2024. Print.
Artforum, “Africanus Okokon,” by Ian Bourland, November 2024. Print.
NPR (Goats and Soda), “‘American African’ Identity Is Explored by U.S. Artist with Ghanaian/Nigerian Roots,” by Kahwit Tela, August 2024. Web.
The Washington Post, “Africanus Okokon’s Inventive Art Enshrines the Cast-Offs of Consumerism,” by Teri Henderson, August 2024. Print.
New American Paintings, “Northeast #152,” December 2021. Print.
Adams and Ollman, “Mariel Capanna and Africanus Okokon in Conversation,” February 2021. Web.
Yale Daily News, “Africanus Okokon to Create Sonic-Visual Experience at Artspace,” October 2021. Web.
Walker Art Center (Mn Artists), “Animating Life in the City,” by Sheila Regan, February 2015. Web.
The Wire- Adventures in Sound and Music, “Issue 384 Soundcheck: Okokon, Turkson Side” (album review), by Clive Bell, February 2016. Print.
PopMatters, “Okokon: Turkson Side” (album review), by Natasha Gatian, December 2015. Web.
The Quietus, “Okokon: Turkson Side” (album review), by Jeanette Leech, December 2015. Web.