Eugene Ankomah

Eugene Ankomah (born 8 June) is a self-taught British contemporary visual artist of Ghanaian descent, with an art career that has spanned more than eighteen years.

Early life

Born and raised in the London Borough of Brent, northwest London. He spent his early childhood living in Ghana with his parents and four siblings, before his family relocated to the United Kingdom in 1990.

Ankomah first realised his love for art as a child of four, when he recalls being obsessed with drawing boxes, and then moved on to drawing members of his family. From the very early beginnings he was recognised and described by many as an "artistic child prodigy".

Secondary education and early development

His early development began at home where he consistently and continuously worked on his own set projects. His growth as an artist began when he enrolled at Willesden High School at the age of 13, where he completed his secondary education. During his secondary education Ankomah became known almost immediately for his impressive drawings of his classmates and teachers, who were always captured completely unaware by his masterful artistic abilities and realistic-style painting and drawing skills and sculpture work.

At the age of 17 Ankomah became the first ever recipient of the coveted Peter Evans Award winning a prize fund of £950 as part of the prize.

After completing his secondary education Ankomah followed a Foundation course at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. He graduated in Illustration and Fine Art at the University of Westminster.^[1]

During this period Ankomah’s works were taken up by the art dealer Karl Barrie of the Kaleidescope Gallery, North-West London, who exposed Ankomah’s works at The Affordable Art Fair. Barrie was later quoted as saying of Ankomah: "He's so talented you just want to be sick."

In 1996 Ankomah became a member of the Brent Artists' Register^[2] in Willesden, London, which connected local artists with the local community.

He also began taking part in both local, national and international group shows and solo shows as well as taking on professional art commissions, which ranged from portraits to producing illustrative designs for posters and postcards.

Early works

Some of Ankomah's most famous early works include not only the aforementioned Elijah Ascending to Heaven but also Drunkenness and Puzzle Drawing.

Tribal works and sculptures

Ankomah's tribal works series include notable works such as Icarus and Amadeus and Spice", to name a few.

'Icarus and Amadeus' Tribal Sculpture by Eugene Ankomah. From the Tribal Works series.

Nail paintings

Ankomah's Nail Paintings series of works include pieces such as 2+2=This Used To Be My Playground, 1+6=Nemeses' and File+36=Warrior Dance to name but a few.

In these works Ankomah used materials such as rusty nails, chicken heads, pigs' ears, pigs' feet, bamboo and other found objects.

Fan base, private collectors and celebrity

Ankomah has a world-wide audience of loyal fans, followers and collectors of his work from diverse backgrounds, demographic groups and age groups who have followed his shows and exhibitions avidly, including well-known names and celebrity fans and collectors of his work.

In 2007 and 2008 Ankomah attended both the 5th and 6th annual prestigious Screen Nation Awards (being hailed as the "Black BAFTAs") as an invited Celebrity guest, where he showcased a selection of his works on request by Charles Thompson (CEO and Founder of the Screen Nation Awards).

On meeting Ankomah and seeing his body of work and artistic ability, Thompson later said: "Eugene is not going to be the next big thing, he IS the next big thing."

The Screen Nation Awards also saw a host of other celebrities and those at the forefront of the UK film, television and media industries become fans and collectors of Ankomah’s work, names such as the UK Grime artist Dizzie Rascal, Gold Medallist Dame Kelly Holmes, actor Colin Salmon, actress Freema Agyeman, long-time broadcaster Moira Stuart and comedienne Jocelyn Jee Esien to name but a few, all of whom own signature portraits by the artist and also having expressed their admiration and respect for him.

It was also during this period that Ankomah met the legendary British Beat poet and author Michael Horovitz, with Horovitz becoming one of an increasing number of celebrities to own one of Ankomah’s signature artworks. He later said of the artist: “It is an honour to have one of your works, you are a very inventive artist.”

Awards and prizes

Eugene Ankomah was the first ever recipient of the coveted Peter Evans Award, he received this award at the age of 17, going on to win numerous other awards and prizes since then, including The Apthorp Fund for Young Artists^[3] (which he won twice in 1999 and 2002), Urban Tension' Prize and Contemporary Portraits' Prize.

To date he has won 11 art awards and prizes.

Shows and exhibitions

To date Eugene Ankomah has taken part in more than 90 shows and exhibitions.

He was one of the few artists chosen by the NCA National Campaign for the Arts to showcase his work in a major solo show entitled The Birth of... at London's Carnaby Street in 2003; the NCA is chaired by Melvyn Bragg (presenter of ITV's The South Bank Show and long-time broadcaster).

In 2008 Ankomah took part in a group show entitled An Expo of Artful Dodgers^[4] among a list of UK visual artists. He was part of a selected group of artists described as "the cream of up-and-coming talent" by The Daily Telegraph.

During this period Ankomah took part in several other group shows including Graffiti Express ^[5] (which he curated), an experimental group show which took place at The Wall at the Gallery in Willesden Green. During this period he appeared as a special guest on Life FM Radio's Culture Show (now known as Bang Radio in North-West London) ^[6] his live radio interview was broadcast in March 2008.

On a visit to Germany in 2008 (Wittenberg) he took part in a group show entitled Feinprobe Honigüss (The Oversweet Experience) ^[7] - currently European Roots Movement - a collaborative experimental group show which brought together visual artists, dancers, videographers and performance artists together from diverse European nations including Austria, The Czech Republic, Germany and Portugal. Ankomah was the only member representing the United Kingdom. The show was of high-public interest with many local German dignitaries present including The Mayor of Wittenberg, and saw Ankomah featured in the German press.

His most recent group show took place in 2010 from 11–30 August; the show, entitled 'The Skin I'm In' ^[8] featured a selection of Ankomah's sculptures and installation work at the Crypt Gallery in London. He comments, "My work often mixes cultural imagery and symbolism from my African background coupled with images from popular culture combined with experimental ways of approaching my various themes I aim to comment socially, politically, culturally, emotionally and personally. I reveal to hide and hide to expose." In December 2011 Ankomah's works were featured at a pop-up exhibition themed Visual Grandeur, produced by Visual Collaborative in Washington, D.C.

Artist residencies

In June 2009 Ankomah went on to begin his third artist residency to date at Salmon Youth Centre (South of London), one of the largest Youth Centre establishments in Europe.

During this period Ankomah has worked on commissions and projects for Southwark Council, South Bermondsey Carnival and took part in a show entitled Canvas For Change at City Hall (the Mayor of London - Boris Johnson's office), which focused on Global Warming. This work was auctioned for the charity Oxfam later in the year.

Prior to this Ankomah completed a residency at Capital City Academy (the first artist residency of its kind in the country), which he completed in 2009.

His first artist residency took place at the OK Club in South Kilburn, which he completed in 2005.

Commissions and projects

In 2002 Ankomah was commissioned by the Ghana High Commission to create a special flag for Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, his specially created flag was one of the flags which appeared on top of the Royal Family's official address at Buckingham Palace. He has also worked on a painting for the Royal Family in Torino, Italy.

In 1998, Ankomah’s local Borough of Brent commissioned him to produce a design for the celebration of its "Harlesden City Challenge" pilot programme, which helped numerous residents of the borough with countless social, housing and educational issues.

In late 2003 Ankomah collaborated on a series of paintings with an artistic colleague when they became Artists in Residence at the Brent Artists' Register (BAR) in Willesden Green, North-West London. They called the collaborative project Cypher and together produced a series of paintings on various themes. The following year in 2004, they exhibited a selection of these works at the Brixton Art Gallery ^[9] along with five other Visual Artists at the e2Di show. This collaborative project later developed into a small organisation called Cypher Arts, which provided the local community with art workshops and student mentorships within Youth Centres and Colleges.

In August 2009, on a separate visit to Hanover, Germany, where together with a group of young people, Ankomah created a painting for the Mayor of Langenhagen and the Mayor of Hanover.

Other commissions have included the Bigga Fish - Notting Hill Carnival Project, South Kilburn Youth Festival Banner Project and many others.

Illustrative work

In September 2009, Ankomah was commissioned to produce illustrations for the award-winning author and journalist Macharia Gakuru. The two books, one entitled ‘Mumbi’ and the other ‘Prince Olympics and London 2012’ were published in September 2009.

2010-present: new direction

Ankomah is currently in the studio working on a series of new works entitled the Cover Upp's. "In my ‘Cover Upp’s series they are used to tell the story of our modern life, through the language of youth culture. I look at various issues concerning the Youth today some of which include knife crime and what is happening in our society," he tells Catch A Vibe magazine.

Press

Since the beginning of his artistic career Ankomah has been featured in numerous newspaper publications, magazines and TV and radio shows.

His earliest press features included The Willesden and Brent Times, Kilburn Times and The Brent Recorder.

By the end of August 2009 Ankomah had gained a high amount of press coverage and media attention and was now being hailed as "Ghana’s Star Artist" on an international stage.

By October 2009 he had been featured in more than 70 top national and international press and media publications, including The Voice newspaper, Ghana Celebrities, African Promo, Modern Ghana,^[1] Catch A Vibe,^[10] African Echo,^[11] Naijalife Magazine^[12] and Black Heritage Today Magazine.

In September 2009 Mimi Magazine also featured Ankomah as one of "The Hot 21", a list which featured twenty-one of Africa's rising talent and hottest Black pan-African stars on the global arena, commenting: “Artist Eugene Ankomah socially inspired and politically themed work is leaving an imprint on the art world and garnering the respect of art lovers and critics alike.”^[13]

It is rumored that Ankomah insured his hands for £1,000,000 sometime between 2007 and 2009.

External links

• Eugene Ankomah at MySpace
• Eugene Ankomah channel at YouTube
• Eugene Ankomah Fan Videos at YouTube

References