Accra’s contemporary art scene is set for a major moment this week as Gallery 1957 launches its tenth anniversary celebrations during Accra Cultural Week, presenting two significant exhibitions that highlight both emerging talent and established voices from Ghana and across the African continent and its diaspora.

Founded in 2016 on Ghana’s Independence Day by Marwan Zakhem, Gallery 1957 has grown from a single space into a key platform for contemporary African art, with multiple venues in Accra and a presence in London.

Over the past decade the gallery has championed artists from West Africa and beyond, hosted residencies, expanded its international reach, and created platforms such as the Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize, the first dedicated award supporting women artists from Ghana and the diaspora.

This year’s Accra Cultural Week, running from 29 October to 2 November 2026, places the anniversary at its centre, drawing artists, curators, collectors and cultural practitioners to the city for exhibitions, talks, studio visits and performances.

The celebrations open on Thursday, 29 October, with the debut solo exhibition at the gallery by Theresah Ankomah, titled “The Lore of Care: Maternal Acts of Devotion.” Ankomah, winner of the 2025 Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize, presents a body of work that examines care, motherhood and women’s labour through locally sourced and repurposed materials.

About the Curator

Curated by Kezia Ouomoye Owusu-Ankomah, the exhibition runs at Gallery I in Accra through 5 December 2026. The opening reception takes place from 7pm to 9pm.

Ankomah’s practice draws on everyday materials and gestures. She works with second-hand bedsheets sourced from Accra’s Kantamanto market, tracing the journeys these textiles have taken across geographies and lives. Through screenprinting, sculpture and weaving, she transforms domestic rituals and often-overlooked forms of labour into reflections on vulnerability, devotion and collective memory.

The exhibition connects personal acts of care to broader histories of material culture and intergenerational knowledge, particularly the skills of women weavers in places such as Dabala. Rather than idealised images of motherhood, the work presents care as sustained practice-attention, endurance and mutual support passed between generations.

Ankomah, who lives and works in Accra, trained at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, earning both a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture. Her earlier projects have included large-scale woven installations using kenaf, palm leaves, jute and other natural fibres, often addressing themes of identity, trade, gender and the environment.

Previous presentations have appeared at venues including Nubuke Foundation in Accra. The current exhibition marks a focused exploration of maternal and domestic themes while continuing her interest in materials that carry social and economic histories.

Two days later, on Saturday, 31 October, Gallery 1957 opens the landmark group exhibition “Where the Earth Remembers,” curated by founder Marwan Zakhem. The show occupies the expansive UNLIMITED space on the third floor of the Kempinski Galleria Mall and continues through 16 January 2027.

The opening reception runs from 8pm to 11pm and features a special performance at 9pm by Nana Yaa, a performance artist and dancer whose practice explores improvisational movement, physical expression and the relationship between the body and architecture.

Where the Earth Remembers

“Where the Earth Remembers” brings together works by artists spanning generations, geographies and media. The participating artists include Ibrahim Mahama, Gideon Appah, Amoako Boafo, Serge Attukwei Clottey, Rita Mawuena Benissan, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Modupeola Fadugba, Godfried Donkor, Kaloki Nyamai, Jonathan Okoronkwo, Yaw Owusu, Professor Ablade Glover and Abdoulaye Konaté.

The exhibition examines how inherited histories can be reworked into new forms of knowledge and expression. Themes of memory, history and transformation run through the selection, creating conversations between different artistic approaches painting, sculpture, textiles, installation and more.

Many of the artists have long associations with Gallery 1957 or have shaped the broader contemporary African art landscape. Ibrahim Mahama is known for large-scale installations that often use jute sacks and other materials linked to trade and labour. Amoako Boafo has gained international recognition for his distinctive portraits.

Serge Attukwei Clottey works with plastic and performance, while Godfried Donkor explores history and mythology through painting and collage. The inclusion of senior figures such as Professor Ablade Glover alongside mid-career and emerging artists underscores the gallery’s dual commitment to established and newer voices.

Gallery 1957

Gallery 1957’s Accra spaces are located within the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City complex, including Gallery I and the larger UNLIMITED venue. The concentration of activity during Cultural Week turns these spaces into a focal point for visitors.

Beyond the two main exhibitions, the week typically includes guided tours, visits to other cultural sites in Accra, talks and panel discussions. Organisers have noted that previous editions attracted significant international attendance, and this anniversary year is expected to draw even greater interest.

The Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize itself reflects the gallery’s ongoing efforts to support women artists. Named after the Ashanti queen mother who led resistance against British colonial forces in 1900, the prize has provided winners with exhibition opportunities and recognition. Ankomah’s selection as the 2025 recipient and her subsequent solo show illustrate how the award feeds directly into the gallery’s programming.

Ten years after its founding, Gallery 1957 occupies a distinctive position. It has helped raise the international profile of Ghanaian and West African contemporary art while remaining rooted in Accra.

The dual exhibitions of late October-one an intimate exploration of care and material histories by a prize-winning artist, the other a broad survey of artistic responses to memory and inheritanceoffer complementary perspectives on the present moment. Together they signal both continuity and evolution as the gallery enters its second decade.

Mode of the the Exhibition

Visitors can attend the opening of “The Lore of Care: Maternal Acts of Devotion” on 29 October from 7pm to 9pm at Gallery I, Accra, and the opening of “Where the Earth Remembers” on 31 October from 8pm to 11pm at UNLIMITED, third floor, Kempinski Galleria Mall, with Nana Yaa’s performance at 9pm.

Both exhibitions are free to the public during regular gallery hours in the weeks and months that follow. Further details are available through the gallery’s website and social channels.

As Accra Cultural Week unfolds, these presentations provide an opportunity to engage with work that is at once deeply local and connected to wider conversations about history, labour, care and artistic transformation.

For a city whose contemporary art scene continues to grow in visibility, the anniversary programme offers a clear statement of ambition and continuity.