—Pablo Picasso.
The exhibition was opened on the 21st of February, 2016, at the Nu Gallery, located on the Nubuke Foundation premises. Nubuke Foundation is a non-governmental organization in Ghana, situated in the leafy suburb of East Legon in Accra. The Foundation’s mission is to provide a space dedicated to the promotion of Ghanaian visual art, culture, and heritage. Nubuke Foundation offers programmes ranging from exhibitions on art and Ghanaian culture, heritage and history, to art workshops, poetry, and drama. It has an extensive interior space ideal for art exhibitions and installations.
The Nu Gallery is one of the exhibition spaces made available to artists to exhibit their artworks. It is a sizeable gallery space that hangs art pieces from various artists and houses a gift shop where art-based souvenirs are on sale. The exhibition is scheduled to end on the 6th of March 2016.
The three artists whose works were on display at the exhibition were:
Soma Sen
An Indian artist currently living in Accra, Ghana. She holds a diploma and a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from the School of Fine Arts and Craft and Ranchi University, India, respectively. Soma is currently enrolled at the Ghanatta College of Art and Design, studying painting. She is a painter and sculptor.
Soma’s inspiration for her paintings comes from colours and the emotions they invoke in her. Her exposure to colours as a visual element of art has triggered an intense desire for experimentation, which positively influences her mood and emotions at all times. This is her second group exhibition in Ghana; her works are also available at The Loom Art Gallery and Nubuke Foundation, all in Ghana. She is looking forward to collaborating with other artists in Ghana.
While in Ghana, Soma has been under the tutelage of the two local artists whose works were on display at the exhibition.
Ed Franklin Gavua
Hailing from the Volta Region of Ghana, Ed Franklin Gavua is an artist whose journey includes sculpture, textiles, blade art, and baking. On display were mainly his blade artworks.
He discovered this interesting expression of putting “words into action” in the form of drawing with a piece of wood with black ink on paper in its raw state. He then uses the blade to highlight or define the feelings and the efforts of how the story should be told.
Blade Art gives a vivid imagination of how we feel for each other—by holding, sharing, caring, and interacting in different ways. This medium of inner expression talks about what we see, the disappointments, hopes, promises, and dreams, and all that makes life worth examining. Gavua has been exhibiting his works in Ghana since 2000 and has won awards at Nigeria’s Adire Carnival and Zimbabwe’s Black History Festival. He also helped Soma hone her skills in textiles and painting.
Lawrence Kweku Agyemang
A painter whose repeated periods of experimentation have led him to observe the beauty of his environment and seek to redefine it artistically on canvas.
Agyemang’s redefinition involves translating his perceptions onto canvas by applying painting techniques using the visual elements of art at his disposal: colours, shapes, values, textures, spaces, and lines, all creatively applied with brushes, palette knives, and improvised painting tools on canvas and other feasible supports.
The results are uniquely and stylistically painted landscapes, seascapes, and abstract works. He calls these paintings “my expressions” because they draw attention to the beauty of our world and its inhabitants and the need to preserve that beauty.
As the over 35 people who attended the opening expressed, these three amazing artists did not fail to thrill their viewers with the colourful expressions of their innermost emotions presented on canvas, taking the audience along on their journey to experience life through their paintings.