Press Release: The Kuenyehia Trust for Contemporary Art Officially Launches New Space, Host Exhibition by Daniel Ofoe Amegavie and Caleb Aryee.
In 2019, The Kuenyehia Trust for Contemporary Art, supported by the MTN Ghana Foundation, continues its efforts in supporting shortlisted artists of the 2018 Kuenyehia Prize for Contemporary Ghanaian Art through 4 exhibitions dubbed “Catharsis”.
Ofoe Amegavie and Caleb Aryee will inaugurate this cycle of exhibitions with “Catharsis I” – a photo exhibition. The selected works by the two Accra based photographers tackle four deeply intertwined topics: spirituality, mental health, domestic violence and identity.
Ofoe’s oeuvre explores spirituality as a way to reconcile his mother’s past struggle with mental health with his present self in the hope of building his own independent identity. His black and white series portray women, with the absence of colours used as an analogy to his state of mind at the time.
The very topical issue of violence and more specifically domestic abuse is the central theme of Caleb Aryee’s body of work. His graphic pictures are meant to trigger discomfort and question society’s contribution to the perpetuation of such behaviour.
The exhibition will also be the opportunity to inaugurate the new Kuenyehia Trust for Contemporary Art gallery.
Exhibition Details
Artists: Caleb Aryee Odartey, Daniel Ofoe Amegavie
Title: Catharsis 1
Dates: Thursday, 23 May – Thursday, 20 June 2019
Address: No. 20 Tedzi Street, South Tesano (Kuenyehia Trust for Contemporary Art on Google Maps)
Google Maps link: https://tinyurl.com/y2g82m8n
Opening Times: Mon-Fri 9am – 5pm
Contact Details
Essé Dabla-Attikpo
0207998332
esse@kuenyehiaprize.org
Social media: @kuenyehiaprize
The Kuenyehia Trust for Contemporary Art.
A not-for profit organization established by Elikem Nutifafa Kuenyehia in 2014 to support emerging and mid-career Ghanaian and African artists, advance contemporary Ghanaian art locally and internationally, promote a vibrant market for art locally and encourage art literacy in Ghanaian society.
The flagship of the Trust, the Kuenyehia Prize for Contemporary Ghanaian Art identifies, rewards and helps develop Ghana’s most outstanding artists between the ages of 25 and 40. Winners and runners-up benefitted from prize money and materials totalling thirty-five thousand cedis (GHS 35,000) in 2018. The Prize contributes to the Ghanaian art ecosystem by inspiring Ghanaian and African artists to produce work that will attract both local and international audiences.
Caleb Aryee
Capturing societal concerns with his poignant tableaux. Caleb Aryee sparks dialogue with his staged images that plague the very fabric of our society. In his work, chalk and rocks, he staged school children engaged in child labour within a school setting. Framing such situations to shed more light on society’s’ ills.
Daniel Cole Ofoe Amegavie
Daniel Cole Ofoe Amegavie is a Ghanaian-born photographer, whose practice revolves around the documenting of traditional happenings within his culture. Archiving his cultural traditions, Ofoe is confronted with the spirituality that exists within his culture and that sets him on a personal spiritual journey to define himself.
Catharsis – Cambridge Dictionary’s Definition
Catharsis is the process of releasing strong emotions through a particular activity or experience, such as writing or theatre, in a way that helps you to understand those emotions
