Installation view of Spotlight: Ludovic Nkoth at The FLAG Art Foundation. Photography by Steven Probert Studio
Spotlight: Ludovic Nkoth
FEBRUARY 12-MARCH 14, 2026
The Spotlight series includes a new or never-before-exhibited artwork paired with a commissioned piece of writing, creating focused and thoughtful conversations between the visual arts and authors, critics, poets, scholars, and beyond. In this iteration, the Spotlight features Ludovic Nkoth’s Stars under the border, 2025, accompanied by a text from Dr. Annissa Malvoisin, Associate Curator of African Art at the Brooklyn Museum and Affiliated Faculty at the Bard Graduate Center.
Close Look, Each Layer: Stars under the Border
By Dr. Annissa Malvoisin
Ludovic Nkoth can immerse you into a deeply psychological world - one that includes trauma, racial politics, beauty, and human experiences - through the delicateness of his brushstrokes. Influenced by discussing "Time-Maps," a cultural theory that ties together the temporal and spatial to think about time away from the eurochronological(1), literary and cultural studies scholar Vilashini Cooppan notes that, "I..] beneath these time-maps are the grids of empire and the moving terrains of trauma and memory. Beyond them are intimations of other ways of thinking."(2) Similarly, Nkoth's works explore how time and space interplay through his themes, which often reframe Black figures in space and time where they have usually been removed - like art historical canons, moments of leisure, or in positions of power. Noth's immersion is at once layered and fluid. For Stars under the Border, 2025, this essay will discuss each stratum.
Layer 1:
At first glance, the layers in this painting seem effervescent, almost like they are moving underneath and through each other. Thematically, the idea behind the painting acts the same. On the ground, groups of people sit next to each other, engaged in their own pastime - writing a note, reading a book, speaking to their neighbor, watching the stars. They are animated by the brushstrokes with their bodies and clothing appearing almost haptic. Turning the optical into the tactile is one of Noth's strengths. This resonance beneath the figure, despite being a top and final layer of paint, is the first layer of feeling. His Mirror series presents ballerinas dancing across the canvas, inspired by his time in Paris and visiting 'Opéra National de Paris. The subject exemplifies Noth's signature ability to make you absolutely feel the emotion and texture of his paintings without ever laying a finger on them. The ballerinas - Black and majestic - may be a perceived juxtaposition in space. These paintings in this series refocus the figures' Blackness without foregrounding it, a subtle protest to normative perspectives of who may do what, or which pastimes are for whom. Stars under the Border does just this in the second layer.
Layer 2:
How much time has passed?
Refocus. The solemnity of the scene is contrasted with yet another level of uneasiness - a liminality shared among Nkoth's explored themes. In time, the people sitting under the stars and resting in the evening become a backdrop against the fence in front of them. It then suddenly feels heavy. Recalling the title of the work - are these figures at a crossing? Noth describes the fence as "barbed wire, intrud[ing] gently rather than violently, complicating the viewer's first impression and raising questions about how distance and aesthetics can soften or obscure crisis." He continues to note that the title is inspired by how borders function - you're in or out, you belong or you don't - but the stars transcend this controlled restriction, remaining omnipresent to those on either side of the border line. He destabilizes fixed ideas of borders.
Although the borderlines in Noth's painting are fluid, the imagery of this scene and topic are not. He mentions that the painting is inspired by "the mass displacement caused by war, political collapse, and economic collapse [...] The painting [then] compresses the figures into a single unit [;] a visual insistence on togetherness in a moment defined by rupture."
Despite this heaviness, he portrays collective tranquility, further animated by the first layer. Harmonious with his previous works, Nkoth continues to survey the migratory experience, much like his own. In Search of Repatriation, his monumental painting from 2020, explored the Mediterranean migration crisis, and this search continues through the experience of moving away and the complications that come with that in Stars under the Border.
Layer 3:
The final layer circles back to the first. After excavating the painting in time, space, and theme, a step back leaves more wanting. The liminality between a beautiful thematic stillness and profound thematic political inquiry provides a critical point of entry to Nkoth's work. Nkoth himself mentions that like the distortions of Francis Bacon and the dark presence of Francisco Goya, he is interested in artists who embrace ambiguity; here Nkoth opens the door to an ambiguous space before you encounter the painting's deepest meanings.
How can I feel more?'
Appadurai, Arjun. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Vol. 1. University of Minnesota Press.
Cooppan, Vilashini. 2019. "Time-Maps: A Field Guide to the Decolonial Imaginary." Critical Times 2 (3): 396-398.
Nkoth mentions that Robert Colescott is one of his inspirations that allowed him to visually complicate the representation of "'...] Black life, politics, and everyday experiences" (Nkoth, personal communication, 2026).
About:
Ludovic Nkoth (b. 1994, Yaoundé, Cameroon) is an artist living and working in New York, NY. Nkoth earned a BFA from the University of South Carolina Spartanburg, Spartanburg, SC, and an MFA from Hunter College, New York, NY. Recent solo exhibitions include Massimo de Carlo, Milan, Italy and London, United Kingdom; François Ghebaly, Los Angeles, CA; Maison La Roche, Paris, France; and Pond Society, Shanghai, China. His work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including at David Zwirner, New York, NY; Gallery Baton, Seoul, Korea; Gallerie Nazionali Barberini Corsini, Rome, Italy; The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; and Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon. Nkoth’s work is included of the permanent collections of the Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL; The Studio Museum, New York, NY; the Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China; and the Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL; among others.
Dr. Annissa Malvoisin is the Associate Curator of African Art at the Brooklyn Museum and Affiliated Faculty at the Bard Graduate Center. A scholar of ancient African history, her research interests lie in a globalized ancient world through the study of material culture and trade and from the perspective of African regions. Malvoisin's curatorial projects include Africa Fashion (2023), Sakimatwemtwe: A Century of Reflection on the Arts of Africa (2023), and the Arts of Africa galleries at the Brooklyn Museum. Her award-winning scholarship has been presented at international meetings and supported by major global research institutes, museums, and cultural institutions. Malvoisin's work delves into contemporary issues of migration, identity, and diaspora through an archaeological lens that bridges deep time with the conditions of today.