GALLERY 1957

Benediction, 2023, Charcoal and Pastel on Wood, 274 x 549 cm

Daniel Arnan Quarshie (b. 1995) specialises in figurative charcoal drawings informed by childhood memories and present-day experiences, which he employs as a point of departure for addressing social and political themes. The resulting works depict familiar scenes — church gatherings, weddings, baptism ceremonies — and layer past onto present in a fugue of temporality aimed at evoking the sensation of nostalgia. Quarshie seeks to elevate charcoal drawing to the prominence enjoyed by painting and sculpture. He has a bachelor’s degree in fine art from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and is currently pursuing his MFA.

In-between Here and There, 2023, Velvet Cut Outs with Sequins and Beads Embroidered on Kente, 165.1 x 189.2 cm

Priscilla Kennedy (b.1994) lives and works in Kumasi, Ghana. She is a member of the blaxTARLINES KUMASI collective and is presently pursuing her MFA at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, her alma mater. Kennedy’s artistic practice encompasses a diverse range of mediums including painting and tapestry, employed in a multidisciplinary approach that weaves ideas of the body, race, sexuality with fictional histories of objects with hybrid life forms. The outcome of these efforts is a tentacular deconstruction of the female body, including her own, as a catalyst for discussion. Kennedy was the 2022 recipient of the Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize.