Draft:Kwabena Yeboah (artist)

Kwabena Yeboah (born 1960) is a Ghanaian contemporary artist recognized as a pioneer of silk thread art in Africa. He reimagines and transforms everyday materials such as silk, traditionally used for Kente cloth as a medium to create art that reveals the artistic and expressive power of silk, establishing silk thread art within a contemporary art context. The energetic, intricate and vibrant silk thread paintings of Kwabena Yeboah explore abstract portraiture and cultural heritage including African masks, adinkra, royalty, music and dance performances. He depict common threads among Africans and diaspora societies, socio-cultural issues and cultural exchanges globally. His work is held in prestigious private and public collections, including The Kwame Nkrumah Museum of Ghana, the Novartis Headquarters in Switzerland, and Kalahari Resorts, USA.

Early Life
Kwabena Yeboah was born in Mampong-Akuapem, in the Eastern Region of Ghana. His artistic sense took root during early childhood. In elementary, Yeboah would draw with pencil on paper biblical depictions including the last supper from my book of Bible stories and public figures like Dr. Kwame Nkrumah from the newspapers.

Yeboah, also known as Yeb had his early education at Mampong-Akuapem Polytechnic Institute under the direction of American instructor, Edward Theodore Bowser Jr. (1924-1995). Bowser Jr. was an architect, civil engineer and private pilot who had a second career in Ghana as part of the Pan African Skills Project. Ghana’s leader and later president, Colonel Jerry Rawlings, was supportive of the institution and the pilot program.

During 1983, due to Ghana’s economic collapse, Yeboah ventured to Lagos, Nigeria then undergoing an economic boom due to its oil industry. Under the tutelage of his brother, Yeb was trained to make traditional footwears including Ahenema, a royal slipper worn by the queens and chiefs of the ethnic groups in Ghana. He then explored textile art under the guidance of textile art instructor Kwame Agagi. His first piece of textile art was a butterfly which had a symbolic connection to his other passion of flying an aircraft.

Kwabena Yeboah was enrolled and trained by Bowser Jr. in the institute’s creative design and pilot training program. He emerged as one of the top trainees qualified for sponsorship in the pilot program. His pursuit to become an aircraft pilot failed due to the unfortunate collapse of the institution.

Work
During his time in Lagos, Nigeria there was a quit order stating that “Ghana must go”. Yeboah returned back to Ghana with a vision to experiment with silk as a medium for artistic expression. Contemplating on the common threads of Kente weaving and the intricate ways of the spider, he reimagined the textile art form, shifting from traditional textile arts. His work occupies a critical space within contemporary art. As it reimagines and transforms everyday materials such as silk thread, integral to the weaving of traditional  Kente cloth as a medium to create art that reveals the artistic and expressive power of silk, establishing silk thread art within a contemporary art context. His visual exploration dismantles the barrier between traditional craft and fine art, recontextualising and revitalising the rich materiality of silk thread for a global audience.

Yeboah's process highlights the transformative potential within everyday materials, inviting viewers to contemplate socio-cultural issues, labor, and the symbolic weight of silk in kente weaving — a potent symbol of Ghanaian culture and royalty in materiality. His work disrupts expectations of how silk should be used, revealing the expressive potential within overlooked elements of textile art.

Eschewing the loom, he developed a threading technique using a pair of twisted silk threads strands, intricately and meticulously collaged and so often painted on the canvas in a gestural manner. By creating his unique visual language and threading technique,He forms unique patterns and motifs through this process of applying silk thread on canvas forming an inward spiral or coiled pattern allowing for a shimmering aesthetic and motion.

The energetic, intricate and vibrant silk thread paintings of Kwabena Yeboah explore abstract portraiture and cultural heritage including African masks, adinkra, royalty, music and dance performances. He depict common threads among Africans and diaspora societies, socio-cultural issues and cultural exchanges globally. Through abstract realism and expressionism, his works depicts shared human experiences, interconnectedness, commonalities that unites and binds us, bridges or brings us together.

Exhibitions

 * “Threads of Life II” – Solo Art Exhibition, Yeb Gallery, Ghana (3 July–2 August 2024)


 * Kwame Nkrumah Portraiture by Kwabena Yeboah (YEB), Michael Appiah (MAY) – Kwame Nkrumah Museum, Ghana (4 July 2023)
 * Kwabena Yeboah: “Threads of Life” – Solo Art Exhibition, Yeb Gallery, The Mix Hub Art space, Ghana (25 November – 3 December 2022)

Selected Projects
Kwame Nkrumah Museum, Ghana. As part of the rehabilitation and redevelopment of the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, a project initiated by the Minister of Tourism, Arts, and Culture in July 2022 with a cost of $3.5 million, Kwabena Yeboah was commissioned to create a handwoven silk painting portraiture of Kwame Nkrumah. Collaborating with Michael Appiah, Yeboah's work now forms an integral part of the museum, which was reopened on July 4, 2023. This significant contribution enhances the rich cultural heritage of Ghana and attracts history enthusiasts from around the world.

Interpreting the Post-Colonial Past in Sub-Saharan Africa: New Analysis Initiatives Alexander Keese. (Université DE Genève, Switzerland) - Research Project: Yeboah's work reinforced presentations made as part of this scholarly and award winning research project, demonstrating the critical attention his art has garnered within academic discussions on post-colonialism.

Ghana-Novartis "Sickle Cell Partnership" Commission (2022): Yeboah created a significant silk thread artifact commemorating the collaboration between Ghana's healthcare sector and Novartis to address sickle cell disease.

Selected Collections

 * The Kwame Nkrumah Museum, Ghana
 * Ghana Embassy in Washington, D.C. USA
 * Global Citizen’s Headquarters, New York, USA
 * AngloGold Ashanti Art Collection, Ghana
 * Sam Jonah KBE Art Collection, Ghana
 * Sarah Adwoa Safo MP Art Collection, Ghana
 * Novartis Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland
 * AngloGold Ashanti Art Collection
 * Todd Nelson Art Collection, USA
 * Kalahari Resorts Pocono Mountains, PA, USA
 * Kalahari Resorts Roundrock Texas, USA