In Ghana, contemporary art on the rise

Audio 02:27

Zandile Tshabalala's paintings during the Enter Paradise exhibition at the Ada gallery, on April 22 in Accra (Ghana).

© RFI / Vincent Pailhé

By: Marine Jeannin Follow

6 mins

Ghanaian contemporary art enjoys growing international recognition, and more and more collectors are snapping up the works produced in this small West African country.

But the local market still suffers from its lack of infrastructure.

Publicity

From our correspondent in Accra,

The new contemporary art gallery Ada moved to Villagio, the most upscale building in the capital, last October. Its director, Adora Mba, is sure: Ghana is about to become the bridgehead of contemporary African art. “

The whole world has its eyes on Ghana. We have so many talented artists enjoying international recognition that the world is now forced to look at us. Most of my buyers are international: a lot of African-Americans, Europeans… Asians, also: Hong-Kong, China, Korea, United Arab Emirates… It's an incredible moment. Some people call it a fad, but I see it more as recognition

. "

Ghanaian contemporary art already has its big names.

Painter Amoako Boafo last year became the second most highly rated African artist in the world.

The plastic artist Serge Attukwei Clottey, who creates colored installations with recycled plastic, was exhibited last March at Coachella.

Lack of dedicated art infrastructure in Ghana

Despite this enthusiasm, Ghana still suffers from a lack of infrastructure. There is no national museum, and the capital Accra has only two galleries and one artist residence, Noldor, which opened last November. Its founder, Joseph Awuah-Darko, explains that he wanted to offer a refuge to artists in times of Covid. “

The pandemic has made things worse for local artists. In Ghana, there is a severe lack of financial support for infrastructure for emerging contemporary artists. The mission I gave myself was to build an artists' residence that would be both a community of artists, a hub and a space for creative proliferation

. "

And to build a viable economic model in the midst of the economic crisis, it was necessary to rely on the support of the diaspora.

“ 

We are a non-profit organization, we subsist on donations.

We have been fortunate to be supported by experienced patrons, such as architect Sir David Adjaye.

We also take a commission on artists' sales, in order to keep our economic model sustainable.

"

More public money to support local industry

The goal is to democratize access to artistic production to bring out new talents, such as Joshua Oheneba-Takyi, 23-year-old painter.

I arrive here in the morning, I immediately start painting.

I spend most of my time in this studio.

I practice a mixture of abstract and figurative art.

My income comes from the sales of my works and from a grant for young artists offered by Noldor.

It is a very favorable working environment, which I am happy to have found

.

"

Artists and gallery owners are now calling on the Ghanaian state to inject more public money to support the local industry ... under penalty of seeing its renowned artists settle abroad, as Amoako Boafo has already done.

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