Efie Gallery presents the exhibition of Yaw Owusu “In the Cool of the Day”. On display there will be ten new works developed during the artist’s residency with Efie Gallery in Dubai this July. The opening is on Wednesday October 19, 2022; the works will be exhibited until Tuesday, December 20, 2022.
Efie Gallery opened in Al-Quoz in Dubai at the end of March. It is a contemporary art gallery, which specialises in artists of African origin. The international market’s demand for art from Africa is extraordinarily high. Art from this continent is selling at global auctions, such as Bonhams, Piasa, Christie’s and Sotheby’s. In the first half of 2019, for example, international sales of art from African countries were a total of $25.3 million. Contemporary art from Ghana is particularly in demand.
Yaw Owusu is a young artist from Ghana (b.1992), who is considered a rising star at the contemporary art scene of today. For his sculptural installations Yaw Owusu uses various found objects, which he repurposes and gives them new meaning. He is also known for his use of countless pieces of loose change known as “pesewa” coins. These small copper coins have almost no value today – the artist uses them basically as a primary material. Pesewa were introduced as an attempt to cure the country’s economy’s inflation in Ghana in 2007, but lost their value. Yaw Owusu’s work activates urgent questions about economic and political independence in contemporary Ghana. The artist has incorporated as much as twenty-four thousand coins in his sculptural installations. He transforms them under various conditions and processes, using natural and chemical treatments, salt from the south coasts or vinegar from the mid and eastern regions.
Owusu’s new body of work appeared as a result of the immersion into UAE culture carried out during his residency. Those captivating abstract forms coloured in vibrant hues were inspired by the artist’s perception of Dubai as a land of abundance, numerous possibilities and futuristic architecture.
More information is on the gallery’s website:
To learn more, please visit the official web page of the exhibition.
You may also like the Fractured Landscapes exhibition by artist Nathaniel Rackowe.
