User:Adugyamfiyaa1/Gallery 1957

Gallery 1957
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Gallery 1957 is a contemporary art gallery located with three locations in Accra, Ghana. The gallery intends to present artists of West Africa and the diaspora. It was established in March 2016 by British construction company owner Marwan Zakhem. As of 2018, the gallery has shown artists including Serge Attukwei Clottey, Gideon Appah, Modupeola Fadugba, Godfried Donkor, Yaw Owusu, and Zohra Opoku.

Gallery 1957 opened on Ghanaian Independence Day on 6 March 2016, and is named for the year that Ghana gained independence from British colonial rule. It opened its first two locations at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City in Accra, opening with exhibitions by Ghanaian artists Serge Attukwei Clottey and Godfried Donkor, respectively. In October 2020, the gallery opened a London location  with an exhibition by Ghanaian artist Kwesi Botchway, co-curated by British writer Ekow Eshun.

By the end of 2019, the gallery had showcased seven exhibitions including:


 * "Last 20 years and beyond" with Ablade glover
 * "Palimpset" with Modupeola Fadugba, Zohra Opoku, Florine Demosthene, Elisabeth Efua Sutherland, Lois Selassie Arde-Acquah
 * "Eroded grounds" with Thameur Mejri
 * "Love letters" with Gideon Appah
 * "How do you spell a silent sound" with Joana Choumali
 * "Battle Royale" with Godfried Donor

Ghanaian writer and filmmaker Nana Oforiatta Ayim serves as the gallery's creative director. Named after the Warrior Queen Mother of Ejisu in the Ashanti Region, Ghana, the gallery also organizes the Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize, which recognizes African female artists in the international art scene. Launched in 2021 to coincide with the 5th year anniversary celebrations of the gallery, it is the first art prize dedicated to female African artists. The prize seeks to strengthen the commitment to supporting and promoting emerging and established artists across Ghana and the diaspora. Currently, the art prize is open exclusively to Ghanaian women and self identifying women artists either living in Ghana or across its diaspora.

The first winner of this prestigious award is Ms. Araba Opoku

Araba's works have been exhibited at the Fullmoon Exhibition, Artemartis (August 2019), Afrifem artxfeminism, Nubuke Foundation (March 2020), Stations of Protest, Cult Meraki/Nubuke Foundation (December 2020) and Art X Lagos (2021) among others. She has also collaborated with artists as well as established firms and organisations, an example being Vlisco International, on a three-month residency project on fashion and art, which ended in March 2021. Together with fellow artists (Xane Asiamah, Oheneba-Takyi Joshua and others), she belongs to an art collective based in Accra, Artemartis, where she serves as both an artist and its creative director.

In 2022, the winner of this award is Priscilla Kennedy.

Kennedy is a member of the blaxTARLINES KUMASI collective and is presently pursuing her MFA at the Department of Painting and Sculpture, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology-Kumasi, Ghana. She holds a BFA degree from the same Department. Through tapestry, embroidery, and painting, Kennedy uses technology and artisanship as means of expressing her personal narratives. Using photography and imagery that make reference to her body, Kennedy's stories bring together personal narratives, race, and feminist politics in fanciful ways. As she acknowledges craft work as a tool for subversion and emancipation of women, she also sees it as a means to subvert oppressive structures.