In a subversive and unique way, Grada Kilomba’s artistic practice is grounded in storytelling, through which she gives form, body, voice, and movement to silenced narratives. Unfolding across performances, staged actions, texts, videos, sculptures, installations, and sound pieces, her work critically interrogates the entanglements of knowledge, power, repetition, and violence, disrupting the interrupting imagination.

Her immersive works—marked by precise poetic and sculptural compositions, simple lines and forms, and the presence of the human figure within geometric, almost empty spaces—create what Kilomba calls “poetic disobedience,” in which beauty stands in tension with cycles of violence and historical repetition. Using delicate and unconventional materials such as charred wood, textiles, earth, coffee, sugar, cocoa, clay, glass, and stones, her practice creates a minimalist encounter that underscores the depth and complexity of Kilomba’s work, often described as a new form of postcolonial minimalism.

Kilomba participated in international exhibitions such as Jinan Art Biennale, China (2025); Bienalsur, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2021); BoCA – Biennale of Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal (2021); La Biennale de Lubumbashi VI, Congo (2019); 10. Berlin Biennale, Germany (2018); Documenta 14, Kassel, Germany (2017); and 32. Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2016). Her solo exhibitions were held at Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil (2025; 2024); Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (2024); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany (2024); Kunsthaus Graz, Austria (2024); Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal (2024); Neon Art Foundation, Athens, Greece (2024); Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany (2023); Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK (2023); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2022); Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy (2022); Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland (2022); Sommerset House, London, UK (2022); Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa (2022); Amant Art Foundation, New York, USA (2021); ARos-Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus, Denmark (2021); Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo – MUAC, CDMX, Mexico (2021); Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Japan (2020); Kunsthall Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark (2020); Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2019); PAC-Pavillion Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy (2019); Kadist, Paris, France (2019); The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada (2018); Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology – MAAT, Lisbon, Portugal (2017); among others. Kilomba was also one of the curators of the 35th Bienal de São Paulo, Choreographies of the Impossible, in 2023.

Kilomba holds a distinguished doctorate in philosophy from the Freie Universität Berlin. In 2023 she was awarded the Doctorate Honoris Causa by ISPA University in Lisbon, and in 2024 she was the recipient of the honourable Angela Davis Professorship 2024 at the Goethe Universität in Frankfurt. Grada Kilomba has been a Guest-Professor at several international universities, including Humboldt Univerity Berlin; and the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, among others.