ARTIST IN RESIDENCE – Winter of 2023
Pronouns: he/him
Photo by Tara Geyerc Courtesy of ALMA | LEWIS.
“My work investigates notions of value. Through experimental alchemy and social situations, which transforms currency in coins, steel, copper, and other materials into sculptural paintings, installations and public engagements/performances. The works permeate global economic histories with the question – How is value made and unmade?”
Yaw Owusu (b. 1992, Kumasi, Ghana) is a visual artist who creates sculptural installations that repurpose found objects, shifting otherwise – worthless materials into encounters of value, and things of other realities. Using steel, gold, silver, copper and found objects in foils; sheets and coins – through activities of change and transformation; removal and attachment; and de-materializing. An approach rooted in a sense of playful alchemy that embraces the dynamics of currency, symbolism and meaning. Owusu received his BFA in painting from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana and an MFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York. He is the recipient of the prestigious Kuenyehia Art Prize for Contemporary Ghanaian Art (2018) and the Pratt Circle Award and Outstanding Student Award (2020). Owusu currently lives and works in New York and Accra.
Follow Yaw on Instagram: @_yawowusu
