Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh and Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson, doctoral students of the Department of Painting & Sculpture, and co-curators of the retrospective exhibition titled ‘Akutia: Blindfolding the Sun and the Poetics of Peace (A Retrospective of Agyeman Ossei ‘Dota’) gave a lecture at the Department of Painting & Sculpture on 16th February, 2021.

The curators took turns explaining the decisions that went into this large scale exhibition honouring the lifework of artist, dramatist, and educator Agyeman ‘Dota’ Ossei (born in 1960). Ossei is also an alumnus of the Department of Painting and Sculpture in KNUST. He has provided administrative and academic leadership as head of the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Ghana, Legon from 2014 until his voluntary retirement in 2017. He was the artistic director of Abibigromma— resident theater group at the University of Ghana, Legon— from 2005-2009 and served as acting Executive Director of the National Theater of Ghana between 2012 and 2014. Ossei has directed and produced concerts with legendary ‘Palm wine’ Highlife musician Agya Koo Nimo and the National Symphony Orchestra as well as skits and jingles for radio in local Ghanaian languages such as Twi, Dagbani, Frafra, Ewe and Wala. Ossei’s translations and adaptations of literary works into theatre plays have been an important feature in his practice— notable among them Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born, Osiris Rising and The Healers.

Prior to this major retrospective held at Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA) Tamale and Red Clay—both institutions founded in Tamale by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama—Ossei’s two solo exhibitions ‘Reviewed Traditions in Ghanaian Painting’ and ‘Proverbs: An Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures’ respectively happened in 1989 and 1993 in Accra.

“Akutia” was co-curated by Adwoa Amoah, Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson, and Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh at SCCA Tamale and Red Clay. The art talk was co-organised by blaxTARLINES KUMASI and Opoku Ware II Museum, KNUST.