Owusu Ankomah’s canvases employ geographically and historically diverse visual references, from Saharan rock painting and Italian Renaissance sculpture, to Ghanaian textile designs, Chinese calligraphy, New York graffiti and capoeira martial arts from Brazil. In a series of new works commemorating the 2007 bicentenary of the British parliamentary abolition of the slave trade, Owusu-Ankomah calls for a freedom not only of the body, but also of the spirit. Paying tribute to those who have historically struggled for emancipation and consciousness in the African diaspora, he declares through his work a manifesto of love and understanding to fill the space between past and future.
