Exhibition on Dr Kwame Nkrumah opens
A three-month art exhibition titled "Liberation Aesthetics: Kwame Nkrumah in Images and Imagination" has opened at Osu in Accra to celebrate the birthday of Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
The exhibition, hosted by the Christianborg Archaeological Heritage Project (CAHP), features works by eight Ghanaian artists, including Alfred Aheto, Ernest Atsukofi Akaba, Nicholas Nii Amasah, Max Abidu De Compos, Kusi Ampem Darko, aka Nana Ananse, Yussif Hussain, Mathew Desmond and Atey Desmong Tettey.
It was curated by Professor Rachel Aam Asaa Engmann, the Director of CAPH and Ghanaian artist, Kusi Ampem Darko, and showcases the portraits of Kwame Nkrumah.
Among the personalities who graced the opening ceremony was Samia Nkrumah, a daughter of the late first President.
The artists used various materials — paint, print, tree bark of a nim tree collected from the Osu Cemetery, cocoa leaves, textiles, plastic waste, metals and other items.
The exhibition includes interactive sessions where artists reflect on their creative process, the role of art in political imagination and how liberation continues to resonate in the present.
The artworks showcase diverse and thought-provoking interpretations of Nkrumah's image, legacy and ideals, breathing new life into his vision and challenging viewers to see him as a man whose vision continues to inspire and resonate in the present.
Prof. Engmann, in an interview, said the artists, in this exhibition, brought diverse and thought-provoking interpretations of Kwame Nkrumah.
She noted that they re-imagine Nkrumah's image, legacy and ideals through their creative practices.
'In doing so, they breathe new life into a figure whose vision continues to shape our collective imagination in profound ways,” she explained.
The Director of the CAHP noted that the works reflected not only Nkrumah's legacy, but also the artists' own aspirations. She said the exhibition invited us to see Nkrumah not as a fixed icon of the past, but as a man whose vision continues to resonate, inspire and challenge us in the present.
Matthew Desmond, one of the artists, drew inspiration from stories of Nkrumah's fight for freedom, while Nii Amasah worked on a project called "Trash Treasure," using discarded materials to create his art pieces.
