Exhibitions

Jonathan Okoronkwo - Some Things Stay Broken

Gallery II, Accra 14 Dec 2022 - 9 Feb 2023 Objects are explained entirely by the human attempt to achieve human ends, and not by the unavoidable need to adapt ourselves to the objects around us, whose very existence, as such, requires we enter into relationships with them largely on their terms and not ours. -Ron Richardson, 2020. The Agency... Read more

Arthur Timothy - Postcards from a Promised Land

London 9 Dec 2022 - 28 Jan 2023 Painted from family holiday pictures taken from 1985 until the present day, Timothy’s new series presents Sierra Leone as a country in an ongoing state of renewal. Depicting abandoned buildings reclaimed by nature, alongside snapshots of neighbours hurrying to church services, Timothy’s reflections on the structures, people, and natural landscape... Read more

Chiderah Bosah - A Solemn Chronicle of Believers

Gallery III, Accra 2 Dec 2022 - 18 Jan 2023 Gallery 1957 is pleased to announce A Solemn Chronicle of Believers , a solo exhibition by Nigerian born artist, Chiderah Bosah. Following a four-month residency in Accra, A Solemn Chronicle of Believers continues through the 5th of January 2023. This body of work finds strength in surrender, and remaining faithful... Read more

Unlimited

Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast, Ghana 10 Nov 2022 - 18 Jan 2023 Gallery 1957 is pleased to present UNLIMITED , the first of its kind group exhibition of monumental, large-scale works of art in a 1,400-square-metre unfinished industrial space that has never been utilised before. The show is curated by Gallery 1957’s founding director, Marwan Zakhem, whose initial inspiration was the renowned... Read more

Tjaša Rener - In Your Presence I Meet my Absence

Gallery III, Accra 27 Oct - 1 Dec 2022 Earlier this year, Accra based Slovenian artist, Tjaša Rener, was invited by Gallery 1957 to do a residency. During the months of March and April 2022, the gallery organised portrait sittings for various members of its creative community. For the artist, this presented a challenge. Whereas before that, her live... Read more

Annan Affotey - The Journey

London 12 Oct - 1 Dec 2022 Following on from the artist's debut solo show Ghanatta Strong in Accra last year, this seminal exhibition expands upon Affotey's love of portraiture painting by looking back to past techniques that have made him into the artist he is today. This new, ambitious body of work figures itself as a... Read more

Amet Kukubor - Reflections: In Stages

Accra, Gallery I 6 Oct - 18 Nov 2022 Comprising acrylic painting on canvas, this exhibition marks the exploration of the ways of living through generations until today. With this new exhibition with the gallery, Kukubor creates space for possibility with the audience to predict what the future might look like. Reflections: In Stages explores the socio-economic state of... Read more

Araba Opoku - Whispers Down the Lane

Accra, Gallery II 24 Sep - 18 Nov 2022 Based in Accra, artist Araba Opoku paints psychological dreamscapes that delve into socio- economic problems. This new body of work focuses on the midnight hour of gathering water: a daunting yet dreamlike cycle in resonance with the moon. The artist's creative process is informed by her current studies towards a... Read more

Sthenjwa Luthuli - Imbewu Yokhokho (The Seed Of Our Ancestors)

Accra, Gallery III 24 Sep - 20 Oct 2022 In this grand exhibition Sthenjwa Luthuli interrogates time and its role in shaping his cosmos, artistic practice and visual narratives. He has produced a series of paintings in his signature style, sculpted in relief form on board. If there is one noun that captures Luthuli's technique, it is: recursiveness. The... Read more

Lauren Pearce - Will I let you In

Accra, Gallery I 2 - 24 Sep 2022 Lauren Pearce’s paintings are the vibrant manifestations of her interior self. They are the results of a cathartic journey of intimate self reflection. In Will I let you In , a collection of large scale new paintings created during her residency at Gallery 1957 in Accra, Pearce delves deeply into... Read more

Nadia Waheed - Heavy Bend

London 2 Sep - 6 Oct 2022 Gallery 1957, London, is delighted to present its first solo exhibition by Nadia Waheed (b. 1992, Saudi Arabia), running September 2nd – October 6th , 2022. This exhibition, titled Heavy Bend, will feature entirely new works by the artist, all produced in 2022 and during a time of compounded personal... Read more

Boluwatife Oyediran - For Boiz Like Me Who’ve Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf

Accra, Gallery II 11 Aug - 7 Sep 2022 Gallery 1957, Accra, is proud to present “For Boiz Like Me Who’ve Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf”, a solo exhibition of works by artist Boluwatife Oyediran, adduced from Ntozake Shange’s 1975 choreopoem, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf”. The exhibition will run from... Read more

Collin Sekajugo and Kaloki Nyamai - Layered Histories

London 28 Jul - 24 Aug 2022 Gallery 1957, London, is proud to present an exhibition of new multimedia works from recent artists in residence, Collin Sekajugo (b. 1980, Uganda) and Kaloki Nyamai (b.1985, Kenya), running 28 th July – 20 th August 2022. The exhibition coincides with both artists’ national participation at the 59 th Venice... Read more

Emmanuel Adiamah - Downtrodden Bits of Reality

Accra, Gallery I 22 Jul - 20 Aug 2022 Gallery 1957, Accra, is proud to present “Downtrodden Bits of Reality” a solo exhibition of artist Emmanuel Adiamah, running from 22nd July - 20th August, 2022. Adiamah has a penchant for using foreign-matter or found-objects with pigment. Collage is the proper term. He has a wide repertoire of materials for... Read more

Naila Opiangah - Two or three sides of the same Story

Accra, Gallery III 15 Jul - 20 Aug 2022 Gallery 1957, Accra, is proud to present “Two or three sides of the same Story”, an exhibition of works by artist Naïla Opiangah, created during her two-month residency at Gallery 1957, Accra. The show runs from 15th July to 20th August, 2022 in Gallery III, inside the Galleria Mall, Accra.... Read more

Aplerh-Doku Borlabi- Shia Hiɛ Nyam Woo: Honouring Home

Accra, Gallery II 3 Jun - 11 Jul 2022 For his first solo show Shia Hiɛ Nyam Woo: Honouring Home, Borlabi presents resplendent re-imaginings of his reflections of home: an enchanting collection of proud portraits celebrating the effulgence of existence that will enrapture the viewer as their eyes glide over them. Inspired by the Ga proverb Gbɔ hiŋmɛii dara... Read more

Abdoulaye Konaté, Barthélémy Toguo, Ky Siriki and Soly Cissé - Une Fil Rouge

Accra, Gallery III 28 May - 16 Jun 2022 This exhibition is a mixed media presentation where textiles, sculpture, oil painting and watercolour meet, and shine juxtaposed to one another, in this open conversation. These painters, draughtsmen and sculptors produce works that are deeply rooted in the culture of their hometowns and loaded with auto-biographical contents. They create fantastic... Read more

Group Show - The Storytellers

London 26 May - 16 Jul 2022 The art of storytelling runs deep in any society. Even before the written word, the oral tradition of telling tales and experiences to one’s community was a way to build solidarity among a given people, offer guidance and inspiration. It was an intrinsic aspect of traditional life. Using gestures and... Read more

Isshaq Ismail - Beauty Behind the Madness

Accra, Gallery I 13 May - 11 Jul 2022 For his debut solo exhibition at Gallery 1957, the artist Isshaq Ismail takes inspiration from a somewhat unusual source: the second studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter The Weeknd. This debut solo is also eponymously titled after the same album. B eauty Behind the Madness by Ismail has as its refrain,... Read more

Nabeeha Mohamed - Same Sky, Different Fruit

Accra, Gallery I 31 Mar - 19 May 2022 In her latest exhibition, “Same sky, different fruit”, Nabeeha Mohamed coalesces paintings threaded together by feelings of home and belonging. Home is conceptualised not only as a place but also as a feeling, as people and things, including fruit...especially fruit! Through this exhibition, Mohamed is reaching towards the sky and... Read more

Kour Pour - New Homes, New Places

London, UK 24 Mar - 14 May 2022 Based in Los Angeles, artist Kour Pour’s creative processes, source material, and painting techniques stem from a wide range of cultures and histories. His experience as an immigrant and biography are the foundation of his work, reflecting his transitory heritage; Pour is of British and Iranian descent and grew up in a mixed-race household – but the artist is also newly American, having been granted citizenship during the pandemic. As a child, Pour spent considerable time in his father's carpet shop, memories of which have become a central component of his practice. These cultural threads inform his work and add to a wide range of visual languages; the interplay of form and content becomes a way for Pour to convey meaning in his art. He draws inspiration from visual traditions that include Persian carpets, medieval Islamic manuscripts, Chinese paintings, and ukiyo-e prints, among others. Read more

Juwon Aderemi - Allegories of Time in Yorubaland

Accra, Gallery II 2 Mar - 14 Apr 2022 Juwon Aderemi’s new body of work is an allegory of passing time. Born at the cusps between two centuries, the artist is placed at the doorstep of post-modernity, wondering what elements of our past should be preserved upon entering the future, right before time is to be circularly flipped like... Read more

Peter Ojingiri - Encountering the Disrupted

Accra, Gallery III 2 Mar - 14 Apr 2022 This exhibition is a space of encounter. It is where and when we encounter the human figures that Peter Ojingiri defined in painting as The Disrupted. They are the daughters and sons of those, in the context of slavery and colonisation of Nigeria, who remained home, as opposed to The... Read more

Kofi Awuyah - WILL IT EVER END......?

Accra, Gallery I 16 Feb - 26 Mar 2022 WILL IT EVER END......? brings together 10 canvases and 5 works on paper produced during Kofi Awuyah’s 10-week residency at Gallery 157 in Accra. In his first major solo-show at the gallery, he employs an expressionist approach in his practice that takes its narrative from historical and contemporary events, in... Read more

Eric Adjei Tawiah - Threads of Past and Present

London, UK 28 Jan - 5 Mar 2022 In his most recent work on view in Threads of Past and Present, the artist’s first solo show at Gallery 1957 in London, Tawiah offers a celebration of camaraderie, friendship, family and major public figures, both living and deceased, during a moment when human kinship is needed more than ever.... Read more

Yaw Owusu - Reflections from the (In)Visible Past

London, UK 25 Nov 2021 - 15 Jan 2022 A Penny for Your Thought Yaw Owusu’s new series of monumental sculptures feature dynamic, abstract geographies that interrogate systems of value, mobility, and power. Composed mainly of Ghanaian pesewa coins, pennies from the United States of America, and repurposed steel, Yaw skillfully uses various domestic liquids and compounds to dye... Read more