Ranti Bam

British-Nigerian artist Ranti Bam (b.1982, Lagos, Nigeria) creates vessels made of clay, their surfaces and contours evoking vulnerability. Bam’s practice engages with the semiotic aspects of the feminine; confronting notions of intimacy, care and fragility. The artist’s sculptures embody this life force spanning two related bodies of work: abstract vessels and Ifas. 

Ranti Bam’s vibrant and delicately constructed abstract vessels fuse painterly gesture and form. Built from thin slabs of overlapping earthenware, they are often supported by animal-like legs, while others are grounded flat. Bam renders their patterned surfaces by using slip—a pigmented liquid clay–to either transfer painted sheets of paper or paint directly onto clay slabs. Her intuitive use of color is drawn from the exuberance of her West African Yoruba heritage, the palettes of Renaissance paintings, Nigerian textiles and the natural world. Notably, she fires past the clay’s prescribed temperature and in the process, their unglazed exteriors stretch, tear, and crackle. Bam occasionally punctures her vessels to reveal their glossy interiors, inviting the audience closer in a moment of reflection. 

Bam’s practice is influenced by her voracious interest in language, incorporating the etymology and metaphors of numerous cultures. In titling her ongoing body of sculptural work Ifas, Bam draws upon Nigerian dialects and signals their multiplicities. “Ifa” in Yoruba means both (ifá): divination and (I –fàá): to pull close. The stools that the vessels rest upon, known as ‘akpoti’, are integral to indigenous life and are used to facilitate spiritual and material sustenance; rest and communal gathering. Bam symbiotically merges these supports with the vessels, presenting her Ifas as votive offerings or “portals” to another sphere. The Ifas are made from raw earth-toned stoneware and terracotta, their hues range from copper, ashy gray to a deep charcoal black. The exterior of the vessels, resembling skin or leather, surrender to the artist’s embrace as she prioritizes spirit before form. Through her varied explorations in clay, Bam reframes our relationship with nature and the body to dismantle ideological constructs. 

Ranti Bam (b. 1982, Lagos, Nigeria) pursued her formal studies in London where she received an MA from The Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design and a diploma in ceramics from City Lit. Solo exhibitions include Anima (2024) at James Cohan, New York, How do we hold our stories? (2024) at Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Paris and Common Ground (2022) at Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, Bucharest. Recent group notable group exhibitions include Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art (2023) from the Chazen Collection, Chazen Museum of Art, Wisconsin, and Hard/Soft: Textiles and Ceramics in Contemporary Art (2023), Museum of Applied Arts, Austria. 

Bam’s work is represented in the public collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Chazen Museum of Arts, Wisconsin; Contemporary Art Society, London; High Museum, Atlanta;  Museum of Applied Arts, Austria; Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey; RISD Museum, Rhode Island; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York and Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

In 2023, Ranti Bam was commissioned to produce a series of Ifas for the Liverpool Biennial in the United Kingdom. Bam is one of eight artists invited by Oulu2026, the European Capital of Culture in Oulu, Finland to participate in Climate Clock: a permanent public art trail intertwining art, science and nature to inspire environmental awareness, launching in June of 2026.