Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize 2021

Gallery 1957 congratulates Araba Opoku who emerged as first place, Anya Paintsil as first runner-up and Theresah Ankomah second runner-up in the first ever edition of the prize in 2021. 
 
The winner had an artist residency and a solo exhibition titled 'Whispers Down The Lane' at Gallery 1957 in 2022.
  • Araba Opoku Prize Recipient b. 1998, Ghana. Lives and works in Accra) Araba Opoku is a multidisciplinary artist, creative director,...
    Portrait of the artist in her studio courtesy Gallery 1957, 2022

    Araba Opoku 

    Prize Recipient  

     

    b. 1998, Ghana. Lives and works in Accra)

     

    Araba Opoku is a multidisciplinary artist, creative director, and collaborator. She studied Psychology at the University of Ghana. Her expansive and autobiographical practice presently explores water scarcity in Accra alongside ideas of the supernatural and world-building. Elements of memory, masochism, and mental health also continue to inform Opoku, expanding upon her 2020 body of work ‘Children of the Motley’s Cycle’. Her works take on the form of abstraction with a touch of surrealism. She is inspired by artists including Adebayo Bolaji, Hilma af Klint, Yayoi Kusama, Francis Bacon, Cindy Sherman, Tracy Thompson, Inka Essenheigh, David Hockney, Louise Bourgeois, and Joana Choumali.

     

    Solo exhibitions include Beneath the Surface, Lehmann Maupin, London, UK (2023); Whispers Down the Lane, Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana (2022); and Come Hell or High Water, ADA\Contemporary, Accra (2022), Ghana. Group exhibitions include When The Birds Fly Home, Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana (2023); Birds of a Feather, Phillips x Artemartis, London, UK (2022); Afrifem artxfeminism, Nubuke Foundation, Accra, Ghana (2020); Stations of Protest, Cult Meraki/Nubuke Foundation, Accra, Ghana (2020); Fragile Masculinity, Apple Feature, California, USA (2020); AKRA Exhibition, Akra, Accra, Ghana Fullmoon, Artemartis, Accra, Ghana (2019); Women in Art; A Conversation, Antique Lemonade, Accra, Ghana (2019); and Understudy of Kofi Setordji, Nubuke Foundation, Accra, Ghana (2016).

     

    In 2021, Opoku won the inaugural Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize and has participated in three residencies with Gallery 1957, Noldor, Print Futures, and AKRA. She has participated in Art X Lagos with Kó Gallery. Opoku features in the following collections: Sir David Adjaye, New York, USA. London, UK; DeRoche, New York, USA; and Artemartis, Accra, Ghana.

  • Anya Paintsil FIRST RUNNER UP (b.1993 Wrexham, Wales. Lives and works in London) Anya Paintsil is a London based textile...
    Portrait of the artist courtesy Ed Cross, 2022

    Anya Paintsil 

    FIRST RUNNER UP

     

    (b.1993 Wrexham, Wales. Lives and works in London)

     

    Anya Paintsil is a London based textile artist of Welsh and Ghanaian heritage. Combining traditional hand rug making techniques with afro hair styling methods, Anya's practice is largely autobiographical, taking inspiration from her childhood in North Wales, family stories, and Welsh and Ghanaian mythologies - while exploring identity, gendered labour and seeking to promote artistic practices historically devalued due to their associations with femininity and other marginalised groups.

     

    Anya made her debut at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London in 2020, and since then Anya has received sustained interest from private collectors and public institutions. Recent acquisitions include Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The National Museum of Wales, The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester and The Women’s Art Collection at Cambridge University

    Anya was awarded the prestigious Wakelin Award in 2020 (exhibited at the Glynn Vivian in 2021), and has recently featured at exhibitions at The Whitworth Gallery Manchester, The Craft Council Gallery, London and at Arnolfini, Bristol.

  • Theresah Ankomah SECOND RUNNER UP (b.1989 lives and works in Accra, Ghana) Her artistic expressions manifest in the form of...
    Portrait of the artist courtesy Somerset house in London, 2023

    Theresah Ankomah

    SECOND RUNNER UP

     

    (b.1989 lives and works in Accra, Ghana)

     

    Her artistic expressions manifest in the form of performative Installations, Sculpture, Painting, Weaving, Fashion, and Printmaking. In recent times, she has been interested in exploring Kenaf woven baskets, strings, jute rope and royal palm leaves at all levels and scales of weaving while at the same time examining the hidden stories associated with the making of these objects. Her interest also lies in how their usage is susceptible to temporality as well as permanence. She uses the complexities of weaving to discover and tell these untold stories.

     

    Theresah engages in the material culture of these objects, researching into the incredible ways this culture interweaves in the nuanced lives of the people who make and use it.

    The objects she uses in her installations are marked by time and they build a database of DNA and fingerprints of their makers and the audience who engages with it, which becomes a tapestry of different experiences. She believes these objects are living archive of experiences captured in a time capsule yet to be noticed.

     

    Theresah was the recipient of the 2021 second runner up prize of the Inaugural Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize in Africa by Gallery 1957 and also the recipient of the 2017 first runner up prize of the prestigious Kuenyehia Art Prize for Contemporary Art in Ghana, respectively. Her work, ‘The Shrine’ is in the permanent collections of the Kuenyehia Trust, ‘Connecting the Why and the Not’ is also in the permanent collections of the European Union Delegation to Ghana.

     

    Her work has been included in publications and exhibitions such as the MasterCard Foundation’s Art Book on Hope, Energy and Ingenuity: Voices of African Youth (2018),

    Erin Christovale Top Ten Best of 2021 in the December issue of Art Forum, How I Made This: Theresah Ankomah’s Repurposed Produce Baskets, 2021, ART news, Ghanaian Artisanal Design Rewoven, 2021, Atmos. Women as the Centre: Art X Feminism, Nubuke Foundation, Accra (2020), Urban Future, Nubuke Foundation, Accra (2020)

     In Dialogue, Alliance Francaise Accra (2021), Ruins, Space and Expression: The Ruins of Our ‘Self’, Notre Galerie, (2021), Look at We, Nubuke Foundation (2021), Atrium Installations, Wood Society of the Art, Dubia Expo (2021), All Africa Festival by Efie Gallery, Burj Plaza, Dubia Expo (2021), Monologue of Voices, Takoradi, Ghana (2021).

     

    She has also participated in a couple of workshops which includes Artivity: The knock on Wood Edition, Societe Generale Ghana, Creative Accelerator program, E be Art we go chop! the role of Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurs in developing Ghana, Experiential therapy at Nkyinkyim Museum just to mention but a few.

  • 2021 JURY PANEL The 2021 winner was selected by a jury of international experts: Afua Hirsch, Writer and broadcaster Touria...

    2021 JURY PANEL

    The 2021 winner was selected by a jury of international experts:

     

    Afua Hirsch, Writer and broadcaster
    Touria El Glaoui, Founder 1-54
    Ibrahim Mahama, Artist and founder of the SCCA
    Amoako Boafo, Artist
    Charlotte Newman, Collector
    Zoe Whitley, Director, Chisenhale Gallery
    Marwan Zakhem, Director, Gallery 1957