Sunday, March 23rd from 1-4pm

Free to the public at OxAA - Fully accessible

Emmanuel Aboagye will be presenting the artist talk with a demo on his unique style of creating art. He will be doing a live demonstration of his secretly delightful image transfer technique using paints, plastic bags, and a heat gun onto canvas. Emmanuel is from Ghana in South Africa, and is attending University of Delaware as a candidate for his MFA.

“I was searching for an MFA program that would not only help shape my practice but also provide financial support after completing my undergraduate studies at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. During this time, a friend reached out to me, highlighting the opportunities the program offers and how it could support my growth as an artist. Encouraged by this, I applied and was accepted into the program in Spring 2023. Since joining, I have deeply valued the studio space, the engaging and supportive faculty, and the opportunity to independently facilitate a class—an experience that has enriched my academic and artistic journey. The program also brings together a diverse community of international students, and in my graduating cohort, I have had the privilege of sharing space with peers from Iran, India, and Japan, making it a truly global learning environment.”

Open and free to the public at OxAA - Fully accessible

Sunday, March 23rd from 1-4pm

Emmanuel Aboagye is an artist of Ghanaian descent who currently lives and works in USA. Growing up in the “Zongo” (metropolitan space mostly populated with Muslims), Aboagye got his eyes fed with different imageries, from text, scribbles on walls, posters, objects to structures within the same space. Experiencing all these imageries, He uses the language of painting to create works that explore the tension between visibility and invisibility, presence and absence as it relates to identity politics, politics of memory, and issues of belonging. He creates images that reflect the everyday and his lived experience. For example, many of his paintings picture scribbled graffiti signage, lower-class and middle-class Ghanaian interiors, and figures. His research delves into the legacies of colonization and slavery, attempting to investigate the residue of colonization and slavery with the use of everyday materials like junk mail fliers he found in the United States as well as patterned plastic bags from Ghana. Language of fragments, disruption and distortion of time and space becomes his tools to create his paintings. He does this through Photoshop manipulation, silk screen-printings, heat and image transfers, text writing,painting in oils and acrylics on canvas, frost sheet and linen.

Emmanuel Aboagye has participated in group exhibitions in Germany (ALL THE KINGS HORSES, Gray and Gray Gallery, Karlsruhe, 2022), USA (SOMETHING DIFFERENT, SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Carnegie Gallery, 2022), (RECIDUES OF YESTERDAY) Newark/Delaware and (PACIFIC PROJECT) in Chile 2024.

Emmanuel was chosen to work on a mural project for Google as they were setting up an office in Ghana. He has also worked closely with diasporic artist like New York base artist Derek Fordjour as an advisor to his art foundation in Memphis called Contemporary Art Memphis, Detroit based artist Conrad Egyir as a studio assistant. Emmanuel is also a member of the blaxtarlines community Kumasi in Ghana.

Emmanuel Aboagye’s works has been published by “the system” magazine and “the Journey” magazine. He has received award from the University of Delaware Community engagement fellowship, DELPHI fellowship, A. Magness award, Elizabeth Greenshields foundation award, and Winterthur museum and library maker-creator fellowship.

Emmanuel holds a Bachelor’s degree in fine Art in painting and sculpture majoring in painting from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana and currently an MFA candidate at the University of Delaware, graduating among the 2024-2025 academic year group.