Dis No Be Art

Reflections on Popular Media Art Exhibitions, Value, and Class in Contemporary Urban Accra, Ghana

Joseph Oduro-Frimpong

ABSTRACT:

Accra, Ghana’s capital, now boasts a significant number of art galleries and other art viewing spaces. These specific infrastructures showcase diverse works of established Ghanaian artists including Larry Otoo and Kofi Agosor and emerging artists such as Bright Ackwerh, Serge Clottey, Amoako Boafo, Kwesi Botchway, Otis Quaicoe, and Yaw Owusu. In these spaces, there is a near absence of popular visual media works. Within this context, and my active resolve to extend my teaching of popular media beyond the classroom, I have drawn on my collections on Ghanaian popular media artifacts to curate “corrective exhibitions” in Accra. In this article, I discuss the inspiration behind my collection practice of popular media artifacts. I also detail some of the critical motivations underpinning my exhibitions around hand-painted movie posters, barbershop and beauty salon signs, political cartoons, and wooden sculpture.

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