AC1: African Contemporary 1

The story behind the story. The depiction of life as seen through the eyes of another. But which stories get told depend upon the eyes “telling” the story… In AC1: African Contemporary 1, a pop-up show featuring the works of Ghanaian artists Isshaq Ismail, Hilton Korley and Joseph P. Nana, three artists reflect upon African life as seen through their eyes and rendered by their hands.

Desire, longing, and wonderment can be seen in the figures of Isshaq Ismail’s “Unknown Faces” series. The artist builds these mixed media works first with common discarded materials. Then he reveals the faces he has seen many times in the streets, markets, and bustling city of Accra. Not trash, but people. Not remnants, but lives. Look closer and they will tell you their stories.

Hilton Korley sees the beauty in everyday life. His vision has no concept of the mundane. The artist works in a traditional impressionist technique using brush and palette knife depicting an African pastoral vibrant in color, hue, and texture. While his paintings on their surface have an immediate sentimental familiarity, the message in his work became clear when he told me, “People only think of the village as hard to get to. I think of it as beautiful.” His landscapes tell a story not just of the beauty of nature but also the people within.

Joseph P. Nana, whose known simply as “Nana,” invites you on a journey into his world through abstract styles which he characterizes as meditations on life. His works often have cubist and surrealist overtones all with hidden Adinkra symbols that represent African traditions, as well as foreground and background layers that shift the perspective of the viewer, and thus the perception of the work.