KNUST Artists At Shangri-La

Artworks by three young students from the College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi are currently on show at the garden of the Shangri-La Hotel in Accra.

Oil, acrylic and water-colour paintings by Esther Nyaadie, Cecil Nii Korley Kodi and Emmanuel Mawuli reveal a variety of styles, techniques, subject matter, themes and media. Creations by Nyaadie for example show agitated and subtle brush strokes that terminate in abstract pieces with semi-circles, lines and shapes in cool and dark colours.

In other works Nyaadie employs the use of faceless musicians, women, adinkra symbols and trees from the semi arid parts of Ghana. She manages to turn discarded tree stumps into beautiful works of sculpture which sparkle in the hot African sun due to the application of varnish.

“Rich and Poor” (65X45cm) show a bold figure of a woman with adinkra symbols in gold. Nyaadie incorporates fresh rice onto the canvas which are stuck through glue while splashing the background with bold colours.

Paintings by Emmanuel Mawuli comprise women and African masks alongside vivid landscapes in which the artist effectively creates an element of distance while other works are inspired by human hands, lines and tiny dots. “The Beauty of an Akuaba” (60X25cm) is a piece with a woman in a colourful cloth. Mawuli places a giant Akuaba Doll with a distorted human figure on top of the piece to signify fertility while maintaining a semi dark background.

Works in acrylic, oils and water-colours by Kodi, who normally works in blues, include giant and colourful figures of large-scale figures of women and huts alongside broad brush strokes and colourful flowers.The exhibition, which is being sponsored by Shangri-La Hotel, ends on Sunday February 29, 2004.