Nana
Opoku

Awardee

Country

Ghana

Nana Opoku reexamines history through design.

Themes
Free Expression / Civil Society
Reexamining history
Racial justice
Disciplines
Design
Visual Art
Other(s)
Awards
FELLOWS Award 2023
CAREC

Profile

Nana Opoku, better known as AFROSCOPE, is an artist and designer based in Ghana. Nana’s art finds its roots in a diverse array of African worldviews and cosmogonies, exhibiting strong surrealist tendencies with underlying Afrofuturist themes. Early and enduring influences on his work include the Yoruba concept of Ashè, the Nguni Bantu philosophy of Ubuntu, and the Akan Adinkra symbology. The genesis of his formal art practice—which navigates the realms of myth, mystery, and automatism—aligns closely with the peak of his disenchantment with colonial norms, especially within the realms of education, religion, nutrition, society, and self-identity.Thus, art-making has become a means for Nana to explore and amalgamate alternative ways of existence that he continues to encounter on his ongoing quest to “decolonize imagination”. Ultimately, he perceives his art as a gateway to a multiverse of realities and a form of cosmic play.