Womanism: Nana Kwesi Agyare-Ansah at East Avenue Gallery

Nana Kwesi Agyare-Ansah, Front Page.

If art is a way of understanding the world, or about revealing the world anew, then it has to be about crossing lines, adventuring into the unknown. That means reaching across cultures, and it’s never been more important than now. The exhibit Womanism–works of Nana Kwesi Agyare-Ansah, on view at East Avenue Gallery in Akron—is like that.

Nana is grom Ghana. He came to the US for the first time in 2019. His education includes a degree in Fine Arts from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), a BS in Marketing from Central University, and a diploma in Fine Arts from Ghanatta College. A lot of Cleveland art afficionados first came into contact with his work in the Fall of 2023 when he exhibited canvases and panels at Invigorate Hough during the CAN Journal launch event there. At that event, vivid panels combining wise, hand painted text with abstract designs adorned the building and fences. The texts included unattributed sayings—”Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter”—and also quotations, including from the urban theorist Fred Kent: “Everyone has the right to live in a great place. More importantly, everyone has the right to contribute to making the place where they already live great.”

Womanism is different: the paintings have no text, and the abstraction is a treatment of female figures, ennobling them with stylistic lines. This is not “male gaze” womanism. The figures are sensual in their colors and curves, but not sexy. These are about culture, community, pride, and respect for women. The didactic describes Womanism as a “distinctive style of painting,” noting that it “marries the principles of cubism with a profound focus on depicting women, celebrating their strength, beauty, and multifaceted nature.”

Asked separately about the allusion to cubism, though, the artist says his “painting style is NOT intended to directly allude to cubism, though there may be elements of abstraction that resonate within it.” He says they “are inspired by specific women in my life and beyond,” and that they draw inspiration from his mother “and themes explored in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple,” specifically celebrating the strength, resilience, and beauty of women. Looking at the figures, though, there are no details that might reveal identities. As the artist says, he does not detail the faces “due to copyright.” The idea of universality might be more relevant than any legal concern: the absence of these details makes the paintings more about women in general than any specific person.

There is no way around the fact that these slice the female forms into facets with intersecting lines that mark off different shades of color, which on its face seems a clear allusion to Cubism. They do show women to be multifaceted, as the didactic promises, but they don’t capture the viewers’ perspective of many angles and perspectives at once, as cubism attempts. Rather, these are flattened planes divided into color fields. The lines flow through the paintings, crossing from one figure to the next, sometimes from the figures onto the background. They have a flow.

They certainly capture joy, belonging, and community. In his painting Front Page, five women stand close, as if for a photo. The colors are delightfully warm and inviting. You could join them and take a selfie.

Nana Kwesi Agyare-Ansah, Deep Affection.

In Deep Affection, three women stand together, one dancing, a second playing a stringed instrument a bit like a banjo, and the third holding a wind instrument, like a flute. What matters here is not what the instruments are–they are from a different culture, to be sure– but the friendship and the music, which exist in all cultures.

Another painting seems like it could represent three generations of women—A grandmother with her arm around her daughter, and another daughter, her hair in ponytails, her head resting on her mom’s hip. The little girl seems to be looking down in sadness, but the overall message is comforting–that these women have each other. One doesn’t need the details, and that message comes through in any culture.

Nana Kwesi Agyare-Ansah