Dozie Kanu

Dozie Kanu was born in Houston, Texas, and is based between Texas and Portugal. His sculptural practice operates at the threshold between art and design, assembling cast-off industrial materials into objects that are both functional and defiant. Chairs, barriers, and platforms recur throughout his work—structures that invite use but resist classification. Though rooted in utility, these forms occupy the same critical and cultural space as conceptual art. Their charge lies not in spectacle but in how they quietly unsettle ideas of value, authorship, and identity—particularly Black identity within the language of minimalist design. Kanu has exhibited internationally, with recent presentations at Project Native Informant, London; Neuer Essener Kunstverein, Essen; and The Studio Museum in Harlem. “I often think about my work through the lens of athletics,” Kanu says. “For me, the function of the objects I create becomes a kind of conceptual shield—something that allows me to move past judgment. Everything comes down to repetition, muscle memory, the endless grind of getting your reps in.” For Side Hustle, he extends this ethos into new territory with Anti-Climb Guiding Block, a pendant lamp produced in three colorways, each an edition of thirty. “It forced me to think about reproducibility without losing the improvisational spirit of the found,” he explains. The result transforms the spontaneity of the found into the controlled process of a limited edition.