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sweat variant: Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born

Two female dancers stand between two vertical metal rings on a dark stage illuminated from above by a blue disk.

Engage in a multisensory environment of embodied memory.

The exhibition by sweat variant (the collective practice of artists Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born) extends their celebrated multidisciplinary performance practice into the gallery space. This new installation work is inspired by the physical research developed for adaku, part 2, which makes its world premiere at the Wex in October 2026. For their presentation in the galleries, Okpokwasili—a performer, choreographer, and writer—and Born—a designer, writer, and composer—create an immersive space that allows visitors to wander through a landscape of embodied memory. In this, the performers’ bodies transmit emotion and experience through movement.

Project credits

Directors: Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born
Performers: Bria Bacon, Kris Lee, Okwui Okpokwasili, Ny Opong, AJ Wilmore
Video Producer: Kearra Gopee
Cinematography: Oresti Tsonopoulos and Alex Munro
Gaffer: Maria Cabra

sweat variant team

Company Producer: Annabel Heacock
Studio and Initiatives Manager: Kearra Gopee
Development and Touring Producer: Linsey Bostwick
Administrative Assistant: Sarah Lou Haddad
Studio Apprentice: Sonia Xiang

"In addition to all of her other skills, the MacArthur-winning Okpokwasili is a formidable analyst of the human condition."

In the press

  • “Interview: Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born,” by Amit Noy, BOMB Magazine
  • “Sweat Variant to Unveil ‘my tongue is a blade,’ An Immersive Performance Exploring Connection and Endurance,” by Martha Lucas, Martin Cid Magazine
  • “Review: ‘adaku, part 1: the road opens’ Brings Africa to the Stage at BAM’s Next Wave Festival,” by Elizabeth Zimmer, Village Voice
  • “‘I Do Believe in a Speaking Brown Body’: Okwui Okpokwasili’s Dance Becomes a Documentary,” by Rennie McDougall, Hyperallergic
Two female dancers stand between two vertical metal rings on a dark stage illuminated from above by a blue disk.

sweat variant, let slip, hold sway, performance at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 2025. Pictured: Okwui Okpokwasili and Kris Lee. Photo: Maria Baranova.
 

A woman in a striped shirt holds her hand over the heart of another woman who leans back against her and covers the first woman’s hand.

sweat variant, let slip, hold sway, performance at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 2025. Pictured: Okwui Okpokwasili and Kris Lee. Photo: Maria Baranova.

Two women stand on a stage; one looks down, the other whispers in her ear. A rotating enclosure of vertical mirrors surrounds them.

sweat variant, My tongue is a blade, performance at Hudson Hall, 2026. Pictured: Okwui Okpokwasili and Bria Bacon. Photo: Ava Pellor.
 

A woman stands outside at dusk wearing a sculpture made of vertically oriented round mirrors and circular loops of lights around her head.

sweat variant, Swallow the moon, performance at Jacob's Pillow, 2021. Photo: Cherylynn Tsushima.

More about the artists

Peter Born

Peter Born (he/him) works as a director, composer, and designer of performance and installation. In collaboration with Okpokwasili, Born’s work has been featured in the Berlin Biennale, Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America at the New Museum, Witch Hunt at the Hammer Museum, Loophole of Retreat: Venice, and Sex Ecologies at Kunsthall Trondheim. Their collaborative performance work has appeared at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum; MASS MoCA; the Irish Museum of Modern Art; and ICA Boston; among others. He is the recipient of four New York Dance Performance Awards (Bessie Awards). His work as an art director and prop stylist has been featured in video and photo projects with Vogue, Estee Lauder, Barney’s Co-op, Bloomingdales, Old Navy, 25 Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and No Strings Puppet Productions.

Okwui Okpokwasili

Okwui Okpokwasili (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based performer, actor, choreographer, and writer. Okpokwasili has earned numerous accolades, including a 2025 Art Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2018 Princeton University Hodder Fellowship, a 2018 Herb Alpert Award, a 2018 Doris Duke Artist Award, and a 2018 MacArthur Fellowship. Okpokwasili was New York Live Arts’ 2015–17 Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist. She was the inaugural artist for the Kravis Studio Residency program at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2022 and an artist in residence at the Brown Arts Institute in 2023. She continues to collaborate with Ralph Lemon, Kevin Beasley, Saidiya Hartman, and Kaneza Schaal, among other artists.

Program Support

sweat variant: Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born is organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts and curated by Curator of Exhibitions Rebecca Lowery. 

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY

Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Wexner Family
Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts
CampusParc
The Columbus Foundation
The Ohio State University
Wexner Center Foundation Board
With special thanks to our members

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sweat variant: Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born