NYAB Event - Atta Kwami "Fufofo"

Atta Kwami "Fufofo"

Howard Scott Gallery

This event has ended.

Fufofo means 'coming together' in Ewe, the language of the Volta Region in eastern Ghana, bordering Togo. The exhibition brings together paintings and etchings made in Kumasi, Ghana, Washington, D.C. and Loughborough, UK. From March thorough May 2010. He served as artist-in-residence at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.. The fellowship which was awarded by UCLA was instituted in memory of Phillip Ravenhill, Chief Curator of the national Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, (1987-97). Atta's desire was to look at Asante and Ewe kente, gold-weights and photos of Ghana in the archives of the museum:

"The qualities I seek on my work are clarity, simplicity, intensity, subtlety, architectonic structure, musicality (rhythm and tone), wholeness and spontaneity. So many strands inevitably manifest themselves in painting: jazz, the timbre of (Ghanaian music (Koo Nimo), improvisation, arrangements of merchandise and so forth. I also see corresponding aesthetic commonalities with wall paintings and music from northern Ghana, the limited range of earth colors and the pentatonic scale of the xylophone. Poetry is able to sustain the life of language through new forms of usage. In painting it is also re-interpretation, improvisation and variation that affect innovation and development."

While the weavings of West Africa were an important influence on his early work, there were additional significant influences including how color dye mixes oxidize in the open air, kiosks and street-life in Kumasi. The wall paintings and fabrics from northern Ghana and Fante Asafo flags have also been a vital resource. When he started to show work critics identified a connection in his paintings with strip weaving and textile designs. It is ironic that their interpretation has led him to study weaving with greater conviction.