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Ghanaian artists

46 artists

Ghana's art draws on rich traditions: the royal arts of the Asante, with their golden regalia, carved stools and brass goldweights, the woven kente cloth and the stamped adinkra symbols. At independence in 1957, artists such as Kofi Antubam, the state artist of Kwame Nkrumah, and Amon Kotei, who designed the coat of arms, gave the new nation its visual identity, and the art school at Kumasi trained generations of painters and sculptors.

Today Ghana is one of the liveliest centres of contemporary art. El Anatsui, born in Ghana, is among the most celebrated artists alive; Ibrahim Mahama, Amoako Boafo and Serge Attukwei Clottey have built international careers and new institutions at home. The Ga workshops of Paa Joe and others make figurative "fantasy coffins" in the shapes of fish, cars and cocoa pods. These are Ghana's artists with Wikipedia articles, most looked-up first. See also Ghanaian photographers and West Africa.

Profiles

Sculptor

El Anatsui

Ghana · Nigeria · 1944–

Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui turns thousands of flattened bottle caps into shimmering metal "cloths". His life, his materials and where to see the work.

Painter and poet

Sharon Dede Padi

Ghana · 1976–2026

Sharon Dede Padi (Padiki), a Ghanaian painter and poet, set the Guinness World Record for the largest leaf-print painting. She died in July 2026, aged 50.

Artist

Ibrahim Mahama

Ghana · 1987–

Ibrahim Mahama wraps buildings in stitched jute sacks that once carried Ghana's cocoa and charcoal, and has built art centres in his home city of Tamale.

Painter

Amoako Boafo

Ghana · 1984–

Amoako Boafo, the Vienna-based Ghanaian painter, models Black sitters' skin with his fingers. His rise set off an auction frenzy; he founded dot.ateliers.

Painter, sculptor and designer

Amon Kotei

Ghana · 1915–2011

Amon Kotei, a Ghanaian painter, sculptor, surveyor and musician, designed the coat of arms of Ghana, approved in 1957. He died in 2011, aged 96.

Painter and designer

Kofi Antubam

Ghana · 1922–1964

Kofi Antubam, Kwame Nkrumah's state artist, designed the chair of state and other symbols of independent Ghana, and wrote Ghana's Heritage of Culture (1963).

Sculptor

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo

Ghana · 1983–

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, a Ghanaian sculptor, made the chained figures at the entrance of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

Photographer

James Barnor

Ghana · 1929–

James Barnor photographed Ghana's road to independence from his Ever Young studio in Accra, shot Drum covers in 1960s London and helped bring colour to Ghana.

More artists

Most looked-up first. Names link to our profile, or to Wikipedia where we do not have one yet. Short descriptions from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons. Image credits

Better known for other work

Writers, presenters and public figures whom Wikidata also lists here; their profiles explain the connection.

Sociologist and image-maker

W. E. B. Du Bois

Ghana · 1868–1963

W. E. B. Du Bois, the civil-rights leader who died a Ghanaian citizen, used photography as argument in his 1900 Paris exhibit of portraits of Black Americans.

Writer and photographer

Caleb Azumah Nelson

Ghana · 1993–

Caleb Azumah Nelson, a British-Ghanaian writer and photographer, won the Costa First Novel Award for Open Water (2021), narrated by a south London photographer.