Young Ghanaian visual artist, Al Hassan Issah, stroke a chord with curious minds with his compelling ‘Million Strokes and Visuals’ exhibition in Accra.
The works on display comprised over one hundred charcoal and ink drawings on paper, depicting his ‘expansive and open-ended approach to art.’
The two-week exhibition, at the W.E.B. DuBois Centre for Pan-African Cultures was in collaboration with the Foundation for Contemporary Art (FCA), a network of artists, established in 2004.
Speaking on the sidelines, he encouraged artists and other talents in the creative industry to organise more exhibitions for the public to appreciate various aspects of their creativity.
He also urged individuals to take advantage of discounts offered at such events since artworks were relatively expensive to purchase on ordinary days.
‘It is called a Million Strokes because it is a million gestures of me making drawings with lines and dots and compiling them to become pictures [that people can relate to]’ Issah stated.
‘I usua
lly make sculptures and paintings and before I do the sculptures and paintings, I make drawings…The drawings on display here are potentially going to be built into sculptures and paintings.
‘They are visions for the future because I am thinking of what I’m going to produce for the future but they have not yet been actualised,’ he added.
Issah was impressed with the positive response to his third exhibition as many students from University of Education, Winneba, and other local patrons turned up in their numbers.
He said visual art ‘goes beyond art galleries’ therefore, the goal was to ‘let people appreciate art and engage in conversations’ about the craft.
Hassan Issah lives and works in Kumasi. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts. He has been ‘an artist his whole life’ but his career started in 2019.
Source: Ghana News Agency