ARTIST
GIDEON APPAH was born in Accra, Ghana in 1987. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana in 2012. His first solo exhibition entitled “sensation” was held at the Goethe Institute in Accra a year after his graduation. Since then, Gideon has held exhibitions in Ghana and internationally, including at the Turbine art fair, the Johannesburg Art fair and a solo booth at the 1:54 Art fair in New York in 2018.
Growing up in a large family, his works reflect a life characterized by strong emotional ties, as well as religious and folkloric activities. Through nostalgic blues, deep green landscapes and charcoal, his dreamlike compositions confront typical interiors of 1980s and 90s Ghana with surreal landscapes.
Using thick, rough applications of acrylic on layers of appropriated posters, prints and photographs, Appah directly references his own family histories. The posters used – advertising haircuts, hairdressers and barbers – refer to the occupations of his aunts, uncles and grandparents, the overall result becoming an artistic archive of community life in Accra.