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. Bam lives and works in Paris.

Bam has exhibited internationally, including Anima, at James Cohan, New York (2024), Hard/Soft: Textiles and Ceramics in Contemporary Art, Museum of Applied Arts, Austria, (2023), and Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool (2023). In June 2026, Bam will unveil her permanent public artwork for ‘Climate Clock’ curated by Alice Sharp, Invisible Dust for Oulu26 Finland, European Capital of Culture. Ranti Bam was invited to be the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia by Koyo Kouoh.