Gideon Appah-Love Letters: Accra, Gallery I

This summer, Gallery 1957 hosts its first solo exhibition of Ghanaian artist Gideon Appah, curated by Katherine Finerty and Michael Babanawo. This multi-media exhibition presents a journey through the individual and collective memories defining artist Gideon Appah’s West African childhood and personal narrative. Multi-layered stories of a large family emerge, where tales of mystic visions are passed down through generations, Gollywood films are played on a Gold Star VHS recorder, and forgotten love letters are found in the thin sheets of saturated family albums.

With reference to his last body of work, “Memoirs Through Pokua’s Window” (2018), Appah delves further into a nostalgic and surreal visual language unearthing hidden recollections and shared visions. A dreamlike world of deep, soulful blues holds painterly vignettes from both physical reality and psychological spirituality. This landscape, home to mysterious male spirits emerging from melancholy waters, sits alongside joyful family photographs and interiors from Ghana during the 1980’s and 90’s to create a space where surrealism meets domesticity, and folklore meets religion.

- Text by Katherine Finerty and Michael Babanawo