Bright Tetteh Ackwerh

Last updated
Bright Ackwerh
Born
Bright Tetteh Ackwerh

Nationality Ghanaian
Known for Visual Art, Painting
AwardsKunyehia Prize for Contemporary Ghanaian Art

Bright Tetteh Ackwerh is a Ghanaian satirical artist who employs the domains of popular art, street art, painting, and illustration to voice and document his persuasions. He has exhibited widely in Ghana and West Africa, building a niche as an emerging contemporary Ghanaian artist on the West African art scene. [1]

Contents

Early life

Born in Accra, Ghana, Bright attended Accra Academy and studied Visual Arts for his senior high school education, before proceeding to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to study for BFA and MFA degrees in painting. [2] He completed his first degree in 2011 and served as a teaching assistant the following year.

Career

He began by exhibiting his artworks via social media and also painting on wall murals in the streets of Accra. He has featured in many art exhibitions in Ghana and abroad. Some these include: Art X Lagos Exhibition in Nigeria, [3] blockbuster exhibitions by Blaxtarlines in Kumasi and the Chale Wote Street Art Festival in Accra.

In 2016, he won the Kuenyehia Prize for Contemporary Ghanaian Art at an event held at the Ringway Estates in Accra. [4] [5] Bright has through the years used social media in sharing his works and provoking powerful sentiments around the themes he explores in his illustrations and paintings.

He has also participated in group shows in Accra, Paris, Johannesburg and Los Angeles. In October 2017 he featured in the October edition of CNN African Voices. [6] He was also on the Barclays L'Atelier Art Competition's 2017 list of top 10 artists. [7] [8] [9]

Style

His style is a satirical re-presentation of Ghanaian sociopolitical and religious issues in an incisive manner that provokes conversations, sparks debate and elicits response. He draws huge inspiration from Fela Kuti and other great African heroes as the subject of his works depict the unapologetic manner in relaying his messages.

He believes the music culture has a certain power to influence and inspire people and there's always the use of double and triples entendre that provide entry points into some of the discussions that the artwork generates.

Awards

Related Research Articles

James Cudjoe is a Ghanian painter. He is one of Ghana's most successful contemporary artists and has been growing in popularity since the start of his career.

Philip Kwame Apagya is a Ghanaian photographer who specialises in colour studio portraits against painted backdrops. He lives and works in Shama, Ghana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene Ankomah</span> British-Ghanaian Contemporary Artist

Eugene Ankomah is a self-taught British contemporary visual artist of Ghanaian descent, with an art career that has spanned more than eighteen years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop</span> Woodwork shop

The Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop is a studio established in Teshie, Ghana, since the 1950s. It is known for its design coffins that became symbolic of African artistic creativity. It featured the talents of several artists who would go on to gain fame as fantasy coffin sculptors, including Paa Joe, Kane Kwei, Eric Kwei, Cedi Kwei, and the lead of the shop at Kane Kwei's death, Theophilius Nii Anum Sowah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chale Wote Street Art Festival</span> Street festival in Ghana

The Chale Wote Street Art Festival also known as Chale Wote is an annual street festival in Accra, Ghana. The festival targets exchanges between scores of local and international artists and patrons. "Wote" in the Ga language means "let's go."

Paa Joe is a Ghanaian sculptor, and figurative palanquin and fantasy coffin carpenter. Joe is considered one of the most important Ghanaian coffin or abebuu adekai artists of his generation. He has been involved in the international art world since 1989, and has been included in major exhibitions in Europe, Japan, and the USA. His fantasy coffins are in the collections and on permanent display in many art museums worldwide, including the British Museum in London, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka and many others as well as the private collections of foreign dignitaries. Joe is building an art academy and gallery to support the community and art students across the globe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mr Eazi</span> Nigerian singer (born 1991)

Oluwatosin Oluwole Ajibade, better known by his stage name Mr Eazi, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, and record executive. He is the pioneer of Banku music, a fusion of sound he describes as a mixture of Ghanaian highlife and Nigerian chord progressions and patterns. Mr Eazi relocated to Kumasi in 2008 and enrolled at KNUST, where he began booking artists to perform at college parties. He showed interest in music after recording a guest verse on "My Life", a song that gained traction and became a popular record at KNUST. Mr Eazi released his debut mixtape About to Blow in 2013. He gained an international audience following the release of the Efya-assisted single "Skin Tight". His second mixtape, titled Life Is Eazi, Vol. 1 – Accra To Lagos, was released in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kwame Akoto-Bamfo</span> Ghanaian sculptor (born 1983)

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator and activist, known for his sculptures and massive body of works dedicated to the memory, healing and Restorative Justice for people of African descent. His outdoor sculptures are dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Transatlantic slave trade, notably the installation Nkyinkim, on display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice that opened in 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama. His other sculptures include an installation of 1,200 concrete heads representing Ghana's enslaved ancestors in Accra, the capital of Ghana. Called Faux-Reedom, it was unveiled in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince Gyasi</span> Ghanaian visual artist (born 1995)

Prince Gyasi Nyantakyi also known by the artist name Prince Gyasi is a Ghanaian international visual artist. He is the co-founder of Boxedkids, a non-profit organization helping kids from Accra get an education.

Serge Attukwei Clottey is a Ghanaian artist who works across installation, performance, photography and sculpture. He is the creator of Afrogallonism, an artistic concept, which he describes as 'an artistic concept to explore the relationship between the prevalence of the yellow oil gallons in regards to consumption and necessity in the life of the modern African.' As the founder of Ghana's GoLokal, Clottey tries to transform society through art.

Ghana Freedom was a Ghanaian art exhibition at the 2019 Venice Biennale, an international contemporary art biennial in which countries represent themselves through self-organizing national pavilions. The country's debut pavilion, also known as the Ghana pavilion, was highly anticipated and named a highlight of the overall Biennale by multiple journalists. The six participating artists—Felicia Abban, John Akomfrah, El Anatsui, Selasi Awusi Sosu, Ibrahim Mahama, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye—represented a range of artist age, gender, locations, and prestige, selected by curator Nana Oforiatta Ayim. The show paired young and old artists across sculpture, filmmaking, and portraiture, and emphasized common threads across postcolonial Ghanaian culture in both its current inhabitants and the diaspora. Almost all of the art was commissioned specifically for the pavilion. Architect David Adjaye designed the pavilion with rusty red walls of imported soil to reflect the cylindrical, earthen dwellings of the Gurunsi within the Biennale's Arsenale exhibition space. The project was supported by the Ghana Ministry of Tourism and advised by former Biennale curator Okwui Enwezor. After the show's run, May–November 2019, works from the exhibition were set to display in Accra, Ghana's capital.

Ibrahim Mahama is a Ghanaian author and an artist of monumental installations. He lives and works in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale, Ghana. He is the founder of Red Clay Studio, Savannah Centre for Contemporary Arts and Nkrumah Volini.

Samuel Prophask Asamoah is a Ghanaian painter. Brush name "Prophask", his works have been exhibited widely, locally and internationally with several in art collections. Asamoah reportedly sits comfortably in the field of painting with his inspirations for his themes from proverbs, daily activities and dreams. His motivation is finding joy while painting and experiencing pain when not painting.

Isaac Chukwu Udeh, popularly known as Chukwu the painter, is a Ghanaian painter, live painter, and performance artist. He is known for his reverse painting and has exhibited at Ghana Banking Awards in 2016 and 2017. His artwork exhibitions was unveiled at the MTN Heroes of Change 2019. He is known for his tribute painting for the late UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Kobe Bryant and Gianna Bryant.

Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo also known as Rojo Mettle Nunoo is Ghanaian contemporary artist and politician. He is a member of the National Democratic Congress and served as the Deputy Minister of Health during the John Evans Atta Mills government.

Gallery 1957 is a contemporary art gallery located in Accra, Ghana. The gallery intends to present artists of West Africa and the diaspora. It was established in March 2016 by British construction company owner Marwan Zakhem. As of 2018, the gallery has shown artists including Serge Attukwei Clottey, Gideon Appah, Modupeola Fadugba, Godfried Donkor, Yaw Owusu, and Zohra Opoku.

Josephine Ngminvielu Kuuire is a Ghanaian photographer, digital artist, graphic designer and activist.

Kofi Setordji is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Ghana. His works range from graphic design, textile designing, sculpture and painting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elikem Nutifafa Kuenyehia</span> Ghanaian lawyer

Elikem Nutifafa Kuenyehia is a Ghanaian lawyer, author and chairman of Keystone Solicitors. He was formerly Chairman and partner at ENSafrica Ghana which was previously known as Oxford & Beaumont Solicitors.

Eric Gyamfi is a Ghanaian photographer, living in Accra, who has made work about queer lives there. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Nubuke Foundation in Accra and the Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg. In 2019, he won the Foam Paul Huf Award.

References

  1. "Bright Ackwerh". UNESCO. 20 April 2018. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  2. "Artist Bright Ackwerh shares insights into the impact of popular art". ashesi education. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  3. "Art X Lagos, Exhibition of Works by Bright Tetteh Ackwerh, Latifah Iddriss, Owusu Ankomah & Marigold Akufo-Addo, November 2016". ANO. Archived from the original on 20 March 2019. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  4. "Bright Ackwerh wins 2016 Kuenyehia prize for Contemporary Ghanaian Art". 18 April 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  5. The Mirror,"Bright Ackwerh is art prize winner", Graphic Online, 22 April 2016.
  6. Es,"7 Artworks From Bright Ackwerh" Archived 2019-03-20 at the Wayback Machine , How Ghana, 26 October 2017.
  7. "World Press Freedom Day 2018". UNESCO. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  8. Adie Vanessa Offiong,"Bright Ackwerh: My art and I", Daily Trust, 15 October 2017.
  9. "Bright Ackwerh Uses His Polarizing Satirical Illustrations To Tell the Hard Truths of the World". okayafrica. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  10. "Bright Ackwerh wins 2016 Kuenyehia Prize for Contemporary Ghanaian Art". GhanaWeb. Retrieved 11 July 2019.