Atsukofi Akaba (born 1985) is a Ghanaian painter who comes from Anyako in the Volta Region. His interest in art as a young boy was inspired by “NATURE” through the emotions of children.
He serves at the “Art Shrine Studios” as the High Priest; he strongly believes that when he dies, his body will rest in a casket, but not his being. He holds an HND in commercial arts (Painting Option), trained at the Takoradi Technical University, and studied Art Education (Post Diploma) at the University of Education, Winneba. He was the Exhibition president of his department (Creative Art, UEW).
He has held and attended numerous solo, group exhibitions and workshops all over Ghana. His work focuses on activities based on traditional Ghanaian children and other day to day activities.
Extending the benefits of cocoa.
The golden bean, also known as cocoa was originally brought to Ghana by Tetteh Quashie. Very scarce and mostly in the forest zones of Africa. It has been one of my Nation’s highest exporting resources with a lot of benefits from every part of the plant. From medicinal to nutritional benefits from the roots, stem, seed and the pod. As part of extending IT benefits as an avid artist, I use my god gifted skill to explore and extend its benefits in the creative art world.
The idea behind my work came from the desire to create a unique image of my happy young twins. I decided to switch from the traditional pencil and colour art which I am also good at. After a lot of thinking, learning, and practice, I experimented with used recharged cards which I saw littering about, (Beauty in Trash). I moved on when the telecommunication companies switched to digital recharging of air time. I eventually came up with a method which I will describe briefly.
The main technique behind my work is collage, where I use dried cocoa leaves as my material of choice. Chiaroscuro, (an Italian word for light and dark), is the art style I employed in my work. I generate a light-dark version of the original image with the help of a computer. I then precisely cut out cocoa leaves and paste onto the work surface, bringing out the finished work.
Any further information that you will need in order to consider if there is a basis for cooperation, I am ready and willing to share.
