Atta Kwami | Goodman Gallery New York

Atta Kwami (b. 1956, Accra, Ghana, d. 2021, UK)  studied, and later taught at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). In 2007, Kwami received a PhD in art history, now published as Kumasi Realism, 1951-2007: An African Modernism, in which he sought to explore past and present influences on West African art, with an emphasis on street art traditions throughout Kumasi, Ghana. 

In 2021, the year he died, he was awarded the prestigious Maria Lassnig prize, which recognised later career artists deserving wider career recognition, and, in 2022, The Serpentine unveiled the final public mural commission by Kwami, DzidzƆ kple amenuveve (Joy and Grace), which remains on view until September 2024. 

This Spring, the Serpentine will publish a monograph edited by Melissa Blanchflower titled Atta Kwami, with Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Köln supported by The Maria Lassnig Foundation and marking the first publication dedicated to examining the breadth of Kwami’s singular practice. 

Kwami’s work has been exhibited widely, notably creating large-scale public art commissions such as at the Folkestone Triennial in 2021 for which the artist made short-term alien interventions in the landscape. Solo exhibitions include: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (1994-1995), SOAS, University College of London (1996), Geometric Organic, National Museum Accra (1998-1999) and Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (2001). 

Kwami’s work is included in major collections around the world, including the National Museums of Ghana and Kenya; the V&A Museum, London; British Museum, London; the National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York.