Rikki Wemega-Kwawu | |
---|---|
Born | February 3, 1959 |
Nationality | Ghanaian |
Known for | Painting |
Rikki Wemega-Kwawu is a contemporary Ghanaian artist, born on February 3, 1959, in the city of Sekondi, Ghana. A devoted painter since 1981, he is largely self-taught, though he is an alumnus of the prestigious Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine. He has participated in many group exhibitions and his work can be found across the world in private and public collections, including the Dutch Artotheek.
Wemega-Kwawu is, in his own words, "a very eclectic painter, swinging easily between pictorial and abstract themes, without any qualms." A statement written by the artist can be found at the website of African Encounters, his representatives on the west coast.
Wemega-Kwawu's work is characterized by a synthesis of the past and the present. He incorporates a plethora of ancient African symbols into his large-scale paintings. He states: "Drawing upon a vein of ancient African religious iconography, I aim in my work at a symbolic expression of a spiritual process and spiritual knowledge to recapture the lost power of traditional African art." [1]
He is also known as a "conceptual artist" and promotes the use of diverse media in visual art. His projects include those that address the effects of globalization and the African diaspora on African art.
His painting Ashanti Saga was included in the exhibition "Artists Speak" at the San Diego Museum of Man, on display from May 2007 through February 28, 2008.
Wemega-Kwawu also writes about the politics of cultural dictatorship in the evaluation of modern African art. [2]
The history of painting reaches back in time to artifacts and artwork created by pre-historic artists, and spans all cultures. It represents a continuous, though periodically disrupted, tradition from Antiquity. Across cultures, continents, and millennia, the history of painting consists of an ongoing river of creativity that continues into the 21st century. Until the early 20th century it relied primarily on representational, religious and classical motifs, after which time more purely abstract and conceptual approaches gained favor.
Jacob Armstead Lawrence was an American painter known for his portrayal of African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", although by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the shapes and colors of Harlem. He brought the African-American experience to life using blacks and browns juxtaposed with vivid colors. He also taught and spent 16 years as a professor at the University of Washington.
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art. By May 2017 the initial group of 13 British artists had expanded to 236 groups in 52 countries.
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the Western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris.
Samuel Lewis Francis was an American painter and printmaker.
Frank Jeffrey Edson Smart was an expatriate Australian painter known for his precisionist depictions of urban landscapes that are "full of private jokes and playful allusions".
David C. Driskell was an American artist, scholar and curator; recognized for his work in establishing African-American Art as a distinct field of study. In his lifetime, Driskell was cited as one of the world’s leading authorities on the subject of African-American Art. Driskell held the title of Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus, at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Robert Gober is an American sculptor. His work is often related to domestic and familiar objects such as sinks, doors, and legs.
Odinigwe Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu MBE, better known as Ben Enwonwu, was a Nigerian painter and sculptor. Arguably the most influential African artist of the 20th century, his pioneering career opened the way for the postcolonial proliferation and increased visibility of modern African art. He was one of the first African artists to win critical acclaim, having exhibited in august exhibition spaces in Europe and the United States and listed in international directories of contemporary art. Since 1950, Enwonwu was celebrated as "Africa's Greatest Artist" by the international media and his fame was used to enlist support for Black Nationalists movement all over the world. The Enwonwu crater on the planet Mercury is named in his honour.
Jason Fayette Rhoades was an American installation artist. Better known in Europe, where he exhibited regularly for the last twelve years of his life, Rhoades was celebrated for his combination dinner party/exhibitions that feature violet neon signs with African, Caribbean, Creole and hip hop slang for the female genitalia.
James McGarrell was an American painter and printmaker known for painting lush figurative interiors and landscapes.
Lois Dodd is an American painter. Dodd was a key member of New York's postwar art scene. She played a large part and was involved in the wave of modern artists including Alex Katz and Yvonne Jacquette who explored the coast of Maine in the latter half of the 20th century.
Karl J. Benjamin was an American painter of vibrant geometric abstractions, who rose to fame in 1959 as one of four Los Angeles-based Abstract Classicists and subsequently produced a critically acclaimed body of work that explores a vast array of color relationships. Working quietly at his home in Claremont, CA, he developed a rich vocabulary of colors and hard-edge shapes in masterful compositions of tightly balanced repose or high-spirited energy. At once intuitive and systematic, the artist is, in the words of critic Christopher Knight, "a colorist of great wit and inventiveness."
Lorser Feitelson (1898–1978) was an artist known as one of the founding fathers of Southern California-based hard-edge painting. Born in Savannah, Georgia, Feitelson was raised in New York City, where his family relocated shortly after his birth. His rise to prominence occurred after he moved to California in 1927.
The terms California Impressionism and California Plein-Air Painting describe the large movement of 20th century California artists who worked out of doors, directly from nature in California, United States. Their work became popular in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California in the first three decades after the turn of the 20th century. Considered to be a regional variation on American Impressionism, the painters of the California Plein-Air School are also described as California Impressionists; the terms are used interchangeably.
Heather T. Hart is a visual artist who works in a variety of media including interactive and participatory Installation art, drawing, collage, and painting. She is a co-founder of the Black Lunch Table Project, which includes a Wikipedia initiative focused on addressing gender gap and diversity representation in the arts on Wikipedia.
Ealy Mays is a Paris-based African-American contemporary artist. His work has been exhibited in Mexico's Galeria Clave, Paris’ Carrousel du Louvre, Mexico's annual José Clemente Orozco Art competition, and New York's Guggenheim museum, to name a few. Legendary painter Henry O. Tanner was the first African American to exhibit at the Louvre in 1897. Mays’ 2005 “Migration of the Superheroes” exhibition at the Carrousel du Louvre makes him one of the few African-American artists to date to follow Tanner's footsteps to the Louvre.
Jacolby Satterwhite is an American contemporary artist who works with video, performance, 3D animation, fibers, drawing and printmaking, currently based in New York City, NY.
William Villalongo is an American artist working in painting, printmaking, sculpture, and installation art. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Villalongo is an assistant professor at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York.
David Antonio Cruz is an interdisciplinary artist working in drawing, painting, video, and performance. Cruz is best known for his psychological paintings that combine figuration, abstraction, and collage. His work has been shown in a number of venues, including El Museo del Barrio, and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and has been awarded several fellowships. Cruz lives and works in New York City.