This vibrant abstract painting features a dynamic interplay of bold colors and expressive brushstrokes. The canvas is awash with a harmonious blend of warm hues – fiery oranges, vivid yellows, and vibrant pinks – that create a sense of energy and movement. The composition lacks any distinct subjects or recognizable forms, instead prioritizing the spontaneous application of paint and the resulting visual rhythms. The artist's confident, gestural technique and the overall sense of spontaneity suggest a strong connection to the abstract expressionist style. This work celebrates the inherent beauty and emotive power of color and mark-making, reflecting the artist's desire to evoke feelings and sensations rather than depict specific imagery. ...
In painting, sculpture, and performance, Emmanuel Awuni engages with African oral traditions and diasporic musical cultures, from hip-hop to jazz, reggae, and Afrobeats. Early experiences playing the traditional West African game Oware in Ghana—where rhythm, strategy, and attentive interaction are central—continue to shape his approach, emphasizing relationality, continuity, and the rhythmic interplay between participants. Awuni’s work mobilizes these diasporic traditions to interrogate power structures, cultural hierarchies, and institutional authority. Drawing parallels between systems of incarceration and the curation of cultural knowledge, he critiques how museums and encyclopedic collections often contain non-Western cultures within rigid, objectified frameworks. Music serves as both metaphor and method, with Awuni framing any form of repressed expression as a ‘song’ against structures of oppression. His installations reconfigure cast busts and found objects, set upon ceremonial blue packing foam bases, transforming them into spiritual presences that invite recognition and ritual care. Across gallery spaces, his paintings unfold with free abstraction, guided by breath and intuition, while sculptural works reveal the emergence of latent material into metaphysical being, offering viewers an experience of transformation, liberation, and the persistent resonance of diasporic histories. ...
