As noted in Nagy and Jordan's First Word in this issue, Director Rebecca Nagy and Curator Susan Cooksey of The Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, have recently investigated contemporary art in Ghana both to build the contemporary art collection and in planning an exhibition focused on current Ghanaian artists' work.
After taking in the vibrant art scene in Accra and visiting the campus of KNUST in Kumasi, they purchased several works by emerging artists, including Jeremiah Quarshie, Caleb Prah, Priscilla Kennedy, and Zohra Opoku and also acquired works by established artists Kate Abena Badoe, Kwame Akoto, and George Adfezi Hughes. Kwame Akoto's untitled painting (2016), and George Adfezi Hughes's Time Cycles (2010), illustrated here, show us two divergent approaches of approaching personal, local, and global ideas that have informed and inspired a new generation of artists. For the Harn, both works lay the foundation for the collection of...