Painting and text: Courtesy of Afikaris

Gideon Appah was born in Accra, Ghana in 1987. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana in 2012. His first solo exhibition dubbed 'sensation' at the Goethe Institute in Accra a year after his BFA graduation. Since, Gideon has held exhibitions in Ghana and internationally including Turbine art fair, Johannesburg Art fair and a solo booth at 1:54 Art fair in New York in 2018.

Growing up in a large family, the works are reflective of a life characterized by strong emotional bonds, religious activities and folklore. Through nostalgic blues, deep green landscapes and charcoal, his dreamlike compositions place typical domestic interiors from 1980s and 90s Ghana against surreal landscapes.

Using thick, rough applications of acrylic upon collaged layers of appropriated posters, prints and photographs, Appah directly references his own familial histories. The posters used - advertising haircuts, barber shops and tailoring - relate to occupations of his aunts, uncles and grandparents, the overall result becoming an artistic archive of communal life in Accra.