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African sculptors

242 artists

Sculpture is Africa's most celebrated art: the terracottas of Nok, the bronzes of Ife and Benin, and centuries of carved masks and figures made for ritual, power and memory (see African sculpture and African masks). Modern African sculptors took that inheritance in new directions. Mahmoud Mokhtar gave Egypt a national monument in granite; Adam Henein carried ancient Egyptian calm into bronze; Ben Enwonwu, Felix Idubor and the Oshogbo carvers renewed Nigerian sculpture; the stone carvers of Shona sculpture in Zimbabwe and the Makonde carvers of Tanzania and Mozambique became famous worldwide.

Later sculptors made monumental and political work: Ousmane Sow and his giant figures, Seyni Awa Camara and her clay spirits, El Anatsui with his bottle-cap cloths, Romuald Hazoumè with his jerrycan masks, Wangechi Mutu with her bronzes at the Metropolitan Museum, and Bruno Catalano with his hollow travellers. These are Africa's sculptors with Wikipedia articles, most looked-up first.

Profiles

Artist

William Kentridge

South Africa · 1955–

William Kentridge makes films from charcoal drawings he draws, erases and redraws, the Drawings for Projection, and operas and sculpture about South Africa.

Artist

Yinka Shonibare

Nigeria · 1962–

Yinka Shonibare dresses headless figures in Victorian costume of "African" Dutch wax print, a fabric with a European history, to question empire and identity.

Sculptor

El Anatsui

Ghana · Nigeria · 1944–

Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui turns thousands of flattened bottle caps into shimmering metal "cloths". His life, his materials and where to see the work.

Painter

Marlene Dumas

South Africa · 1953–

Marlene Dumas, born in Cape Town and in Amsterdam since 1976, paints faces and bodies from photographs in loose, wet washes. A leading painter of our time.

Painter and artist

Lubaina Himid

Tanzania · 1954–

Lubaina Himid, born in Zanzibar in 1954, became the first Black woman to win the Turner Prize in 2017. She represents Britain at the 2026 Venice Biennale.

Sculptor

Mahmoud Mokhtar

Egypt · 1891–1934

Mahmoud Mokhtar, a village boy from the Nile Delta, became the father of modern Egyptian sculpture; his Egypt's Awakening became a national monument in 1928.

Artist

Wangechi Mutu

Kenya · 1972–

Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu builds hybrid figures from collage, bronze and soil. From Nairobi to the first-ever Met facade commission in 2019.

Sculptor

Bruno Catalano

Morocco · 1960–

Bruno Catalano, born in Morocco to a Sicilian family, makes life-size bronze travellers with whole parts of their bodies missing, shown in Marseille in 2013.

Sculptor

Ousmane Sow

Senegal · 1935–2016

Ousmane Sow, a physiotherapist turned sculptor, made larger-than-life Nuba wrestlers and Maasai and Zulu warriors, and drew three million visitors in Paris.

Painter and sculptor

Ben Enwonwu

Nigeria · 1917–1994

Ben Enwonwu (1917–1994) sculpted Queen Elizabeth II, made Anyanwu and painted Tutu, the "African Mona Lisa" that sold for £1.2 million in 2018.

Painter and musician

Twins Seven-Seven

Nigeria · 1944–2011

Twins Seven-Seven, sole survivor of seven sets of twins, became the most famous painter of the Oshogbo school, filling his works with Yoruba spirits.

Artist

Otobong Nkanga

Nigeria · 1974–

Otobong Nkanga, a Nigerian-born artist in Antwerp, makes tapestries, installations and performances about land, mining, trade and the body.

Painter, sculptor and novelist

Mahi Binebine

Morocco · 1959–

Mahi Binebine, a former maths teacher from Marrakech, paints masked figures, sculpts in bronze and wrote the novel behind the film Horses of God.

Printmaker and painter

Bruce Onobrakpeya

Nigeria · 1932–

Bruce Onobrakpeya, of the Zaria Art Society, invented printmaking techniques drawing on Urhobo culture and founded the Harmattan Workshop in Agbarha-Otor.

Sculptor

Seyni Awa Camara

Senegal · 1945–2026

Seyni Awa Camara of Bignona, Casamance, modelled clay mothers, twins and many-headed spirits, shown at Magiciens de la Terre in 1989. She died in 2026.

Painter and poet

Malangatana

Mozambique · 1936–2011

Malangatana Ngwenya (1936–2011) painted crowded, visionary canvases, was jailed by the Portuguese secret police and became a UNESCO Artist for Peace.

Sculptor and painter

Adam Henein

Egypt · 1929–2020

Adam Henein carved calm, timeless figures in granite and bronze, led the design team restoring the Great Sphinx and founded the Aswan sculpture symposium.

Artist

Adel Abdessemed

Algeria · 1971–

Adel Abdessemed, born in Constantine, left Algeria during the civil war and made provocative works such as Coup de tête, the giant bronze of Zidane's headbutt.

Painter, sculptor and designer

Amon Kotei

Ghana · 1915–2011

Amon Kotei, a Ghanaian painter, sculptor, surveyor and musician, designed the coat of arms of Ghana, approved in 1957. He died in 2011, aged 96.

Artist

Ghada Amer

Egypt · 1963–

Ghada Amer, born in Cairo, stitches images of women and words into her paintings, turning a craft taught to women into a language of desire and freedom.

Painter and sculptor

George Lilanga

Tanzania · 1934–2005

George Lilanga turned the shetani spirits of Makonde carving into joyful paintings of long-eared dancing figures, and became East Africa's best-known artist.

Artist

Romuald Hazoumè

Benin · 1962–

Romuald Hazoumè of Porto-Novo turns plastic petrol cans into masks and built La Bouche du Roi, a slave ship of 304 masks now owned by the British Museum.

Painter and sculptor

Dumile Feni

South Africa · 1942–1991

Dumile Feni, the "Goya of the townships", drew apartheid's suffering in powerful, distorted figures, above all African Guernica (1967), before exile in 1968.

Sculptor

Coert Steynberg

South Africa · 1905–1982

Coert Steynberg made the Paul Kruger statue at the Kruger Gate, the Bartolomeu Dias at South Africa House and the Krugerrand springbok: Afrikaner monuments.

Sculptor

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo

Ghana · 1983–

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, a Ghanaian sculptor, made the chained figures at the entrance of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

Sculptor

Nnenna Okore

Nigeria · 1975–

Nnenna Okore, a Nigerian artist born in Australia and based in Chicago, twists, dyes and weaves burlap, paper and clay into sculptures of decay and renewal.

Painter and sculptor

Zoubeir Turki

Tunisia · 1924–2009

Zoubeir Turki, a member of the École de Tunis, drew the everyday life of Tunis and made the bronze statue of Ibn Khaldoun on Avenue Habib Bourguiba.

Calligraffiti artist

eL Seed

Tunisia · 1981–

eL Seed, a French-Tunisian artist, paints Arabic calligraphy on a monumental scale, from a mosque minaret in Gabès to Perception, across 50 buildings in Cairo.

More artists

Most looked-up first. Names link to our profile, or to Wikipedia where we do not have one yet. Short descriptions from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons. Image credits