Otis Mensah

Otis Mensah is a Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist, writer and curator exploring the aesthetic fabric of language and cadence to evoke ethereal portraits of the body, family and notions of home. Drawing from a rich lineage of Black musicality, Otis’ poetic-sonic practice pulls multidimensional sound and text from archival material and reflections on dreaming and nature.

Concerned with an Abstractionist approach to language, Otis’ practice draws vitally from the likes of Norman Lewis and Jack Whitten, examining vivid experimentation with the materiality of paint as technique and lens for approaching text. Otis’ writing exalts the materiality of words to reveal a larger emotional landscape. By queering and subverting biblical language and parable, Otis exercises magical realism in their work, muddying the waters of memory and archival material with myth and portrayals of a Black diaspora.

Following their tenure as the first Poet Laureate of Sheffield, UK, Otis has had a diverse calibre of experience in contemporary art both as artist and curator; publishing their poetry collection Safe Metamorphosis with Prototype London, debuting at Glastonbury Music Festival and performing alongside Moor Mother, Benjamin Zephaniah and Little Simz.