This week in Accra – our top 10 events

The hugely respected Ghanaian artist Ablade Glover established this renowned arts venue, which has become one of the most important of its kind in Ghana. There are three expansive floors of art displayed in cool marble galleries. Some are by established artists, such as Owusu Ankomah and George Hughes, whose paintings are reminiscent of Jean Michel Basquiat and Willem De Kooning, while others are by new and upcoming artists like Ebenezer Borlabie. Market, rural and urban scenes are interspersed with political satires – and naturally, there are also the shrouded figures and staccatoed crowd scenes by Glover himself. There are collectors’ pieces too: Asafo flags with appliquéd and embroidered symbols; ancient strip-woven Kente cloths by the Akan and Ewe; African masks of the type that inspired Picasso; and intricately carved furniture. Also on show are full-sized coffins in the shapes of crabs, running shoes and eagles. Everything is for sale. There’s a lovely pool out the back. 

Loom’s Frances Ademola has a popular gallery that exhibits paintings and sculptures by a good selection of Ghana’s foremost artists, with a smattering of expressive Nigerian pieces. The modest space has been here since 1969, and is bursting at the seams with the work of nearly 100 artists. If Ademola is around, she’s delightful company, chatting exuberantly about artists such as Seth and Serge Clottey and Gabriel Eklou, and happily offering her great knowledge of the Ghanaian art scene, past and present. Loom is regarded as one of Ghana’s premier galleries.

Along the seafront near Black Star Square is the Arts Centre. Hawkers attack from all sides as soon as you arrive, but if you’re not exhausted by the scrum you can find carvings, baskets, drums, bags, beads, fabrics, sandals, sculptures, stools, rugs and occasionally antiques. It’s a place to unearth some incredible finds and gifts. The best bet is to head past the hassle which you’ll inevitably encounter at the entrance and make your way towards the back of the complex, where it’s a bit more relaxed. Haggling is expected. There’s also an art gallery, which sells prints and paintings at reasonable prices.

Gallery 1957 is one of the most exciting new gallery openings in the last decade. The 140sqm space, named after the year Ghana gained independence, is housed in the beautiful new Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City and has a curatorial focus on contemporary Ghanaian art presenting a programme of exhibitions, installations and performances by the country’s most significant artists under the creative direction of Nana Oforiatta Ayim. The gallery has evolved from over 15 years of private collecting by Marwan Zakhem, Managing Director of Zakhem, whose projects in Africa include the Kempinski. He said: "I first started collecting contemporary art when I moved to Africa. The work I encountered in Senegal and Ghana had a real aesthetic power to it while reflecting the society of our time. Many of the artists the gallery is working with are increasingly gaining a presence internationally in museums and biennales, but opportunities to reach new audiences at home are limited due to the lack of existing art infrastructure here. There is an abundance of talented artists from West Africa who is deserving of increased visibility." Find out more at http://www.gallery1957.com/

The Foundation for Contemporary Art at the WEB du Bois Centre (a research centre for Pan-African history and culture, named after African-American civil rights activist William Edward Burghardt Du Bois) was set up by Joe Nkrumah, formerly of the National Museum, and Australian artist Virginia Ryan. It exhibits work by up-and-coming artists in interesting ways, such as its Art in the Garden projects. Its growing library, now with more than 800 books about visual arts, is one of the organisation’s most important projects. It’s also developing a debating forum and a public database of artists, organisations, galleries and patrons. There’s a wide range of information on its website.

Carving its way out of the ‘West African literature’ hold all category and emerging as a genre in its own right, Ghanaian fiction has received due credit in recent years with young authors taking the reigns from the likes of Kofi Awoonor (This Earth, My Brother, 1971), Ama Ata Aidoo (Our Sister Killjoy, 1977) and Ayi Kwei Armah (The Healers, 1979). Ghana’s new generation of writers includes poets, successful bloggers, authors of young adult fiction, crime fiction and strong contenders on ‘recommended new novelist’ tables in bookstores across the globe. Probably last year’s most talked about novel of this realm is Ghana Must Go, by Taiye Selasi. It leaves readers with plenty to chew on, with its unusual narrative style and complex characters. The intelligent Ms Selasi has certainly stepped into the literary world with a grand entrance (her fan base includes Toni Morrison and Salman Rushdie). The story revolves around a Boston family of six  - the mother Nigerian, the father Ghanaian - whose mixed up lives repel and retract like a rubber band. Accra is referred to more as a backdrop to the storyline, however it is obvious the city and Ghana are familiar territory for Selasi with descriptions such as “lush Ghana, soft Ghana, verdant Ghana, where fragile things die” and “the smell of Ghana, a contradiction, a cracked clay pot: the smell of dryness, wetness, both, the damp of earth and dry of dust.” Selasi enjoys flitting between hot, slower paced Accra and crisp, snow covered...

I’m no art aficionado, “But who needs to be to rub shoulders with the who’s who and have a glass or three of champers, while perusing some pretty pictures?” I thought. So, off we went (my long neglected clutch bag and I) to the opening of Jeremiah Quarshie’s Yellow is the Colour of Water exhibition hosted by Gallery 1957, jewel of Accra’s latest and swankiest lodging, the Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel. Make no mistake, the well-heeled were there, but thankfully diluted by the city’s hip creatives and intellectuals, international visitors, and more ordinary folk like yours truly. This formed a delightfully cosmopolitan crowd who all appeared to relish exploring Quarshie’s hyper real and detailed portraits hung in among a construction site on the Kempinski property. What greater compliment could any artist ask for than for such a wide range of people to all be enjoying his work at once? Too late for the booze (or perhaps too early?), I grabbed a cold glass of cranberry instead, and made my way to one end of the exhibition. The stark surrounds and scale of the site’s concrete walls achieved a dramatic, but muted, backdrop for the artworks. It didn’t take long to notice a significant shift in the demeanour of the artist’s subjects over time. “Gifte” from Yellow is the Colour of Water I, completed in 2013, is slumped, demoralised and exhausted, across a wheel barrow carrying two yellow “Kufour” gallons. These recycled cooking oil containers are often used in Ghana, and across West...

The opening dates and gallery locations for Wiz Edinam Kudowor’s first major retrospective in Accra, has been announced. The collection is made up of more than 50 powerful paintings and other assorted works that have never been displayed in the public domain. After a series of discussions and curatorial advice, it was decided to stage a multiple-location exhibition due to the expansive nature of the collection. The collection spans a period of 40 years including works from Wiz’ high school days from the early 1970s. The works include figure drawing, portraiture, still life, architectural designs, fabric designs and his well-known signature style of figurative abstraction with influences of African masks, geometric patterns and esoteric symbolism. The medium range from pastel, acrylic, charcoal, collage, appliqué and watercolour. The exhibition opens at Ano Gallery on Friday, 16th March and follows through with subsequent openings on 20th and 22nd at Berj Gallery and Artists Alliance Gallery respectively. This retrospective will reestablish Wiz Kudowor as a powerful force to reckon with in the vibrant Ghanaian art scene. Sela Adjei will be the lead Curator for the Exhibition. Curatorial advisors for the exhibition are Prof. Ablade Glover and Nana Oforiatta Ayim. Follow AnoGhana, Grin Studios, Berj Gallery and Artists Alliance Gallery for further details.

Time Out: Your use of pesewa coins has become your artistic calling card of sorts. Were there any other materials that came as a close second? Yaw Owusu: At the beginning I mostly painted, but I have always been interested in the processes of transformation, and as such, started experimenting with reactions between other materials like aluminum and steel.   T O: The treatment the coins undergo to change colour is complex. Was it a period of trial and error to achieve your desired result, or did you sincerely have to learn some chemistry? Y.O: My encounter with these treatment outcomes was initially by chance – when some coins had contact with seawater during a project at the beach in Cape Coast. However, my little senior high school background in chemistry contributed enormously to the freedom to experiment with several elements and conditions, and I must admit I had no specific idea of what the reactions and activities could yield; I still don’t try to guess what might happen (even though some might be easily predictable). T O: How has Accra changed since you were a boy? Y.O: I grew up mostly in Kumasi as a kid, but I had the opportunity to see most of the other parts of the country. Accra, as the capital, always demonstrated the greatest change each time I revisited, due to the fact that most developmental projects and businesses’ head offices were centralised there. T O: To survive in Accra, one has to be somewhat savvy and entrepreneurial. What creative ideas have you...

Run by the painter Betty Acquah, this gallery represents Larry Otoo and other well-established artists. It also offers a good framing service.